Orthodoxy (1884)
Context: How do they answer all this? They say that God “permits” it. What would you say to me if I stood by and saw a ruffian beat out the brains of a child, when I had full and perfect power to prevent it? You would say truthfully that I was as bad as the murderer. Is it possible for this God to prevent it? Then, if he does not he is a fiend; he is no god. But they say he “permits” it. What for? So that we may have freedom of choice. What for? So that God may find, I suppose, who are good and who are bad. Did he not know that when he made us? Did he not know exactly just what he was making?
“I don't know what the facts are but somebody's certainly going to sit down with him and find out what he knows that they may not know, and make sure he knows what they know that he may not know, and that's a good thing.”
Talking to reporters about whether President Bush knows about equipment inadequacies in Iraq http://www.defenselink.mil/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=1985
2000s
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Donald Rumsfeld 38
U.S. Secretary of Defense 1932Related quotes
Quote from 'Max Ernst', exhibition catalogue, Galerie Stangl, Munich, 1967, U.S., pp.6-7, as cited in Edward Quinn, Max Ernst. 1984, Poligrafa, Barcelona. p. 12
1951 - 1976
“He knows what he wants, he's a good Jesuit, and the Jesuits know exactly what they want.”
Source: Cardinal Gracias: curial reform is nearing the 'end of the tunnel' https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/36820/cardinal-gracias-curial-reform-is-nearing-the-end-of-the-tunnel (14 September 2017)
“You know what? As it relates to my brother, there is one thing I know for sure: he kept us safe.”
GOP Presidential Debate, FOX News, , quoted in [2015-09-16, Jeb Cites 9/11 Rubble in Claiming George W. Bush Kept America Safe, Ben Mathis-Lilley, Slate, http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/09/16/jeb_bush_9_11_rubble_video_says_brother_kept_america_safe.html]
2015
2010s, I don't know, so I'm an atheist libertarian (2011)
Context: My friend Richard Feynman said, "I don't know." I heard him say it several times. He said it just like Harold, the mentally handicapped dishwasher I worked with when I was a young man making minimum wage at Famous Bill's Restaurant in Greenfield, Massachusetts.
"I don't know" is not an apology. There's no shame. It's a simple statement of fact. When Richard Feynman didn't know, he often worked harder than anyone else to find out, but while he didn't know, he said, "I don't know."
I like to think I fit in somewhere between my friends Harold and Richard. I don't know. I try to remember to say "I don't know" just the way they both did, as a simple statement of fact. It doesn't always work, but I try.
Section V: “The Parliament of the People”, p. 100 http://books.google.com/books?id=MW8SAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA100&dq=%22No+student+knows+his+subject%22
1910s, The New Freedom (1913)
"Doing What I Know" (song)
Song lyrics
Source: Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Doing What I Know" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlkC9AFrSNU (song on YouTube)