“4. Knowledge is the most democratic source of power.”

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Alvin Toffler 16
American writer 1928–2016

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“Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

According to Barbara Wolff, of The Hebrew University's Albert Einstein Archives, this is not one of Einstein's identifiable quotations. (Source: paralegalpie.com http://www.paralegalpie.com/paralegalpie/2009/11/did-anybody-really-say-that.html.)
The phrase "the only source of knowledge is experience" is found in an English-language essay from 1896: "We can only be guided by what we know, and our only source of knowledge is experience" (Arthur J. Pillsbury, "The Final Word" https://books.google.com/books?id=Mw9IAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA595&dq=%22only+source", Overland Monthly, November 1896). The thought can be seen as a paraphrase of John Locke's argument from his Essay Concerning Human Understanding: "Whence has it [the Mind] all the materials of Reason and Knowledge? To this I answer, in one Word, From Experience". (Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding/Book II/Chapter I, 2.)
The phrase "information is not knowledge" is also found from the nineteenth century https://books.google.com/books?id=W2oAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA59&dq=%22information+is+not+knowledge%22.
Misattributed

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“Of all treasures of knowledge, the most vital is the knowledge of God, his existence, powers, love, and promises.”

Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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“There is no greater weapon than knowledge and no greater source of knowledge than the written word.”

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Inauguration of Library of Birmingham, Jan 2013

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“The kind of knowledge that gives most help in solving such problems is a wide survey of human life, in the past as well as in the present, and an appreciation of the sources of misery or contentment as they appear in history.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

1940s, Philosophy for Laymen (1946)
Context: Mankind, ever since there have been civilized communities have been confronted with problems of two different kinds. On the one hand there has been the problem of mastering natural forces, of acquiring the knowledge and the skill required to produce tools and weapons and to encourage Nature in the production of useful animals and plants. This problem, in the modern world, is dealt with by science and scientific technique, and experience has shown that in order to deal with it adequately it is necessary to train a large number of rather narrow specialists.
But there is a second problem, less precise, and by some mistakenly regarded as unimportant – I mean the problem of how best to utilize our command over the forces of nature. This includes such burning issues as democracy versus dictatorship, capitalism versus socialism, international government versus international anarchy, free speculation versus authoritarian dogma. On such issues the laboratory can give no decisive guidance. The kind of knowledge that gives most help in solving such problems is a wide survey of human life, in the past as well as in the present, and an appreciation of the sources of misery or contentment as they appear in history.

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“The power of Open Source is the power of the people. The people rule.”

Philippe Kahn (1952) Entrepreneur, camera phone creator

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“Knowledge is power; knowledge shared is power lost.”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

This has been attributed to Crowley on the internet, but without citation. No incidents of it in Crowley's works have as yet been located.
This was quoted as an "occult tradition" in Fundamentals of Experimental Psychology (1976) by Charles Lawrence Sheridan, p. 17, but without any reference to Crowley.
Disputed
Variant: Knowledge is power and knowledge shared is power lost.

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