Michel Foucault Quotes

Of course, having information to use is one thing. Knowing what it means and how to use it is a different story.

Knowledge is power only when put to use - and then only when the use made of it is constructive.

Today, because knowledge is available on every Internet-connected device, what you know matters far less than what you can do with what you know. The capacity to innovate — the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life — and skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important than academic knowledge.

Knowing and knowing what to do about it were two different things.

Today knowledge is free. It's like air, it's like water... There's no competitive advantage to knowing more than the person next to you. The world doesn't care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know.

Whoever acquires knowledge but does not practice it is as one who ploughs but does not sow.

Wisdom is not just knowing fundamental truths, if these are unconnected with the guidance of life or with a perspective on its meaning. If the deep truths physicists describe about the origin and functioning of the universe have little practical import and do not change our picture of the meaning of the universe and our place within it, then knowing them would not count as wisdom.

What good is knowledge if it just floats in the air? It goes from computer to computer. It changes and grows every second of every day. But nobody actually knows anything.

Don't be the ammunition wagon, be the rifle... knowledge exists primarily for use.

It's one thing for a man not to know, not to have learned; it's another not to be able to live by what one does know.

All knowledge is good. It is impossible to say any fragment of knowledge, however insignificant or remote from one's ordinary pursuits, may not some day be turned to account.

I'd say I learned a lot. It's all about whether or not I can apply it.

Knowledge is vain and fruitless which is not reduced to practice.

Logic is one thing and commonsense another.

They are not the best students who are most dependent on books. What can be got out of them is at best only material; a man must build his house for himself.

Men are paid, not merely for what they know, but more particularly for WHAT THEY DO WITH THAT WHICH THEY KNOW.

When the interval between the intellectual classes and the practical classes is too great, the former will possess no influence, the latter will reap no benefit.

The more information that's out there, the greater the returns to just being willing to sit down and apply yourself. Information isn't what's scarce; it's the willingness to do something with it.

Knowledge applied is productivity.

Wisdom and knowledge can best be understood together. Knowledge is learning, the power of the mind to understand and describe the universe. Wisdom is knowing how to apply knowledge and how not to apply it. Knowledge is knowing what to say; wisdom is knowing whether or not to say it. Knowledge gives answers; wisdom asks questions. Knowledge can be taught, wisdom grows from experience.

The essence of management is to make knowledge productive.

...it's not just learning that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things that matters.

Knowledge above the average can be crammed into the average man, but it remains dead, and in the last analysis sterile knowledge. The result is a man who may be a living dictionary but nevertheless falls down miserably in all special situations and decisive moments in life.

It is not a question how much a man knows, but what use he can make of what he knows.