Albert Schweitzer Quotes

We cannot understand. The best is perhaps what we understand least.

In the world we live in, what we know and what we don't know are like Siamese twins, inseparable, existing in a state of confusion.

But I still couldn't figure out what it all meant. The more I found out, the less I understood.

In order to have wisdom we must have ignorance.

One mysterious person looking at another mysterious person equals what? Another mystery.

To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.

There are many things that I don't understand.

Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.

There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.

Only a blind man can easily define what light is. When you do not know, you are bold. Ignorance is always bold; knowledge hesitates. And the more you know, the more you feel that the ground underneath is dissolving. The more you know, the more you feel how ignorant you are.

I'm up and down and round about, Yet all the world can't find me out; Though hundreds have employed their leisure, They never yet could find my measure.

The more you play it the less you know about it.

Mystery is underrated, and understanding is overrated.

What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean.

Secrets are the blood of life. Every big thing is a secret, even when you know it, because you never know all of it. If you can know everything about anything, it is not worth knowing.

The more I see, the less I know.

I know nothing, because I know too much, and understand not nearly enough and never will.

The more you know, the more you know you don't know and the more you know that you don't know.

Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we face a problem, we may not know its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for. When we face a mystery, however, we can only stare in wonder and bewilderment, not knowing what an explanation would even look like.

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

Indeed, the most important product of knowledge is ignorance.

Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.

Every branch of human knowledge, if traced up to its source and final principles, vanishes into mystery.

We know accurately only when we know little, with knowledge doubt increases.

Something unknown is doing we don't know what.