Learning, science, reason, and the intellectual life; theories and their limits; education and the pursuit of understanding.
- Making Best Use of the Time Greg Beale
I read [the 740 page N.T. Wright book on the Resurrection of Jesus] while brushing my teeth over a period of time. … One page in the morning, one in the evening.
- Man of Understanding Remains Silent Proverbs 11:12
Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent.
- Science Doesn't Teach Anything Richard Feynman
When someone says, “Science teaches such and such,” he is using the word incorrectly. Science doesn’t teach anything; experience teaches it. If they say to you, “Science …
- Scientific Men Charles Hodge
Scientific men give the name of science to their explanations as well as to the facts. Nay, they are often, and naturally, more zealous for their explanations than they …
- Evil, Enormous Multiplication of Books Edgar Allen Poe
The enormous multiplication of books in every branch of knowledge is one of the greatest evils of this age. It presents one of the most serious obstacles to the …
- A Message from God John Newton
When I hear a knock at my study door, I hear a message from God. It may be a lesson of instruction; perhaps a lesson of patience: but, since it is His message, it must be …
- Chrysostom on the Ignorance of Christians Chrysostom
If you ask [Christians] who is Amos or Obadiah, how many apostles there were or prophets, they stand mute; but if you ask them about the horses or drivers, they answer …
- Difficulty of Berivty Mark Twain
Anybody can have ideas — the difficulty is to express them without squandering a quire of paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.
- Knowledge and Knowledge John Bunyan
There is, therefore, knowledge and knowledge. Knowledge that resteth in the bare speculation of things; and knowledge that is accompanied with the grace of faith and …
- Bavinck on Rosseau Herman Bavinck
In the eighteenth century, Rousseau became the apostle of a ‘back to nature movement’ that repudiated human culture as the source of all evil. If only, in education, …
- Diminshed Value of Historical Arguments Robert Tracy McKenzie
Complicated answers rarely work well in public debates. In his classic Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville observed that ‘a false but clear and precise idea …
- Lincoln’s Best Friend Abraham Lincoln
My best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.
- The History of Philosophy John Frame
But in philosophy itself, thinkers today discuss essentially the same questions that Plato and Aristotle did. That interesting fact suggests that the history of …
- Warfield to Franklin George Whitefield
As you have made a pretty considerable progress in the mysteries of electricity, I would now humbly recommend to your diligent unprejudiced pursuit and study the mystery …
- Books vs. Knowledge Herman Melville
Nevertheless, though of real knowledge there be little, yet of books there are a plenty.
- Thomas Jefferon on Jesus Thomas Jefferson
And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation …
- Kahneman on Media and Memory Daniel Kahneman
People tend to assess the relative importance of issues by the ease with which they are retrieved from memory—and this is largely determined by the extent of coverage in …
- C. S. Lewis on Devotional Books C. S. Lewis
I believe that many who find that ’nothing happens’ when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are …
- Madmen in Authority John Maynard Keynes
Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. Madmen in authority, who hear …
- Richard Baxter on Sermon Notes Richard Baxter
Writing is an easy help for memory, to those who can use it. Some question whether they should use it, because it hinders their affection. But that must be differently …
- Powlison on Discipleship David Powlison
Discipleship does the hard work of kneading what is true into how we actually live.
- Newton’s Childhood John Newton
When I was four years old, I could… repeat the answers to the questions in the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism, with the Scripture proofs; and all Isaac Watts’ smaller …
- Vanity of Science John Calvin
We must carefully notice these two things — that a knowledge of all the sciences is mere smoke, where the heavenly science of Christ is wanting; and man, with all his …
- Fools and Asses Ray Bradbury
The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They’re Caesar’s praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, ‘Remember, Caesar, thou art …
- Adam Smith on Watches Adam Smith
But the person so nice with regard to this machine, will not always be found either more scrupulously punctual than other men, or more anxiously concerned upon any other …
- The End of Education Richard Baxter
Your study of physics and other sciences is not worth a rush, if it be not God that you seek after in them. To see and admire, to reverence and adore, to love and delight …
- John Newton on Jonthan Edwards John Newton
‘Edwards on Free Will,’ I have read with pleasure, as a good answer to proud reasoners in their own way; but a book of that sort cannot be generally read: where the …
- The Realm of Science Vern Poythress
Because of the cultural prestige of science and scientists, many people simply accept the present state of things as if it were the only possibility. But once we question …
- Ignorance of Providence John Calvin
Ignorance of providence is the ultimate of all miseries.
- My Happiest Hours C. S. Lewis
My happiest hours are spent sitting up to the small hours in someone’s college room talking nonsense, poetry, theology, metaphysics over beer, tea and pipes. There’s no …
- Lovers of Books Desiderius Erasmus
I consider as lovers of books not those who keep their books hidden in their store-chests and never handle them, but those who, by nightly as well as daily use thumb …
- Theory Induced Blindness Daniel Kahneman
Once you have accepted a theory and used it as a tool in your thinking, it is extraordinarily difficult to notice its flaws. If you come upon an observation that does not …
- The Vice of the Age John Newton
It is not reasoning but neglecting to reason, and to extend conclusions to their just consequences, that I condemn as the vice of the age.
- Eschew Obfuscation Daniel Kahneman
If you care about being thought credible and intelligent, do not use complex language where simpler language will do. … In an article titled ‘Consequences of Erudite …
- Media and the Importance of Issues Daniel Kahneman
People tend to assess the relative importance of issues by the ease with which they are retrieved from memory–and this is largely determined by the extent of coverage in …
- Favorable Conditions to Learn C. S. Lewis
The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.
- C. S. Lewis on Doctrinal Books C. S. Lewis
For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await …
- The Bright Morning Star Thomas Watson
What is it to know all the motions of the orbs and influences of the stars and in the meantime to be ignorant of Christ, the bright Morning Star? What is it to understand …
- Not a Thought in Her Head George Orwell
She had not a thought in her head that was not a slogan.
- Sure Mark of an Unliterary Man C. S. Lewis
The sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers ‘I’ve read it already’ to be a conclusive argument against reading a work.
- The Story is the Meaning Flannery O'Connor
The whole story is the meaning, because it is an experience, not an abstraction.
- The Value of music Martin Luther
I would not give up what little I know about music for something else which I might have in greater abundance.
- Money for Books Erasmus
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.
- On Buying Books Arthur Schopenhauer
Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their …
- Bavinck on Science and Scripture Herman Bavinck
Human scientific research cannot become an independent third-party arbitrator deciding what parts of Scripture, if any, are reliable and to be accepted. Those who make …
- Mencken on Professors and Theories H. L. Mencken
A professor must have a theory as a dog must have fleas.
- Reading and Raking John Piper
When my sons complain that a good book is hard to read, I say, ‘Raking is easy, but all you get is leaves; digging is hard, but you might find diamonds.'
- My Greatest Friend Isaac Newton
Plato is my friend, Aristotle is my friend, but my greatest friend is truth.
- Cult of Ignorance Isaac Asimov
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our …
- Madness of People Isaac Newton
I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.