Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 182.
“Men do not know what they do not know, and women should not tell them.”
“What most men do not know - and if they could know it, why could they be called on to believe it?”
Is that this blue sky, though illusory as an optical error and belied by the vision of interplanetary space, is nonetheless an adequate reflection of the Heaven of the Angels and the Blessed and that therefore, despite everything, it is this blue mirage, flecked with silver clouds, that is right and will have the final say; to be astonished at this amounts to admitting that it is by chance that we are here on earth and see the sky as we do.
Understanding Islam (1963)
Source: Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason
“Men! What do they know? They never grow up.”
Source: Drenai series, The King Beyond the Gate, Ch. 22
As quoted in Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau, Ch. 1
Attributed
Confucius, as quoted in Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau, Ch. 1
Misattributed
“The most difficult thing is to know what we do know, and what we do not know.”
Source: Tertium Organum (1912; 1922), Ch. I
Context: The most difficult thing is to know what we do know, and what we do not know.
Therefore, desiring to know anything, we shall before all else determine WHAT we accept as given, and WHAT as demanding definition and proof; that is, determine WHAT we know already, and WHAT we wish to know.
In relation to the knowledge of the world and of ourselves, the conditions would be ideal could we venture to accept nothing as given, and count all as demanding definition and proof. In other words, it would be best to assume that we know nothing, and make this our point of departure.
But unfortunately such conditions are impossible to create. Knowledge must start from some foundation, something must be recognized as known; otherwise we shall be obliged always to define one unknown by means of another.
