“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”

“What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.”

“On any longer view, man is only fitfully committed to the rational — to thinking, seeing, learning, knowing. Believing is what he's really proud of.”

“Life becomes the way it is lived; and man may live the way he wants to live when he learns to think what he wants to think.”

“The more a man knows, the more willing he is to learn. The less a man knows, the more positive he is that he knows everything…”

“(When asked who the three finest old time guitarists were) Well, I would have to pick Travis, you know; I think he's a great man with his music, and there's been many a man that's copied from Merle. You know, they say he learned from a man in Kentucky. Well, I know this Mose Rager he learned from, he learned from Arnold Shultz, the man I speak of, a colored man, in playing the blues. So I think it all leads back to this old colored man back in Kentucky.”

“It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction.”

“The more man learned, the more he realized he did not know.”

“He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, for that is what he will know.”

“I think he who knows himself will know accurately, not the opinion of others about him, but what he is in reality… he ought to discover within himself what is right for him to do and not learn it from without…”