Variant: True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
Source: The Analects, Chapter II
Variant translation by Lin Yutang: "He who knows others is learned; he who knows himself is wise".
Source: Tao Te Ching, Ch. 33, as interpreted by Stephen Mitchell (1992)
“Nothing you believe is true. To know this is freedom.”
Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (2002)
“All we can know is that we know nothing. And that's the height of human wisdom.”
Variant: The only thing that we know is that we know nothing — and that is the highest flight of human wisdom.
Source: War and Peace (1865–1867; 1869), Ch. I
“One thing I know, that I know nothing. This is the source of my wisdom.”
“When you know that the snake is in you – that's wisdom.”
Other
“Following conventional wisdom and relying on shortcuts can be worse than knowing nothing at all.”
Forbes: "5 Obstacles That Inspired Me To Innovate" https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/06/28/5-obstacles-that-inspired-me-to-innovate/#8f06bb42b77f (28 June 2018)
Source: Short fiction, Companions on the Road (1975), Chapter 9, “The Dark” (p. 98)
