Help with the source of a quote?
Posted on: March 23, 2008 - 11:50pm
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Help with the source of a quote?
This isn't exactly related to atheism/theism, but I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me anyway. I'm trying to find the source of the following:
"The more you learn, the less you know."
I throw this quote around all the time, but I have no idea where it comes from. I've tried googling it (and slightly altered forms of it) with little success.
Any ideas? I'd like to be able to credit the person whose words I'm stealing.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
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It was a line in the theme song from the 1980s tv show "Valerie"/"Valeries Family."
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Is that the original source? Or was the song quoting?
The show was originally called The Hogan Family
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
Actually "the Hogan Family" was the later name - they changed it after they fired her and killed off her character because she wanted more money.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
In a round-about way, you'd be quoting Lao Zi. It's in the part about "one who thinks he knows, knows not", etc. I'll try and find it for you.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
How about these?
The more you learn of it, the less you know. (common phrase, multiple sources)
AND
The more you learn....the more you earn. (another common phrase, multiple sources)
As a side note about the first quote, it was not meant as an insult to education. It is meant as an observation and I will use myself as an example. The more I learn about the one species of fly that I study, the more I realize that I DO NOT know about it. Get it?
I found where the folk version probably came from in popular usage. The Beatle's song "The Inner Light" quotes Lao Zi: "The farther one travels, the less one knows" That full passage in the Dao De Jing is the part I was talking about.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
The Western world would be more familiar with this idea through Plato.
Absolutely, but I was looking for the thing I remembered that matched the pop-culture version presented. Also, you know Plato covered it somewhere in there, but I can't remember anything that matches exactly.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
Ouch!
Absolutely, which is why I use it all the time! The more books I read, the more I am uncomfortably aware that I actually know very little. So the phrase would be more accurate (but much too prolix) if it were written: "The more you learn, the more you realize that there is more to learn than you will ever be able to learn".
While trying to google the quote and find it's source, I've seen plenty of examples of people interpreting it the other way and suggesting we should all quit school.
Thanks to everyone helping me out!
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
True. Good catch. I am personally unfamiliar with the show. I apparently was supplied incorrect information from some website.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
I attempted a search in google not under quotes but 'proverbs'
I found a sicilian proverb: "The more you know the less you believe." I have to laugh at that one..sounds like a theist.
Another close one:
The more you know, the less you need - Australian aboriginal proverb
This is a tough one to track down...I will keep looking
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Main reason I knew was I used to watch the show pretty regularly when it was on.