Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Knowledge is the only good thing and ignorance is the only bad thing.
In plain terms
Knowing is good, not knowing is bad.
What can you take from it?
Value knowledge above all else.

Where it applies

  • education
  • moral choices
  • career decisions

Putting it to work

  • prioritize learning
  • seek truth
  • avoid willful ignorance

Questions to consider

  • Is knowledge the only thing that matters?
  • What else is good besides knowing?

Another view

This ignores other values like kindness or courage that are not purely knowledge.

More from Socrates

  1. Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.

    Permalink to quote #23
  2. All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.

    Permalink to quote #25
  3. Often when looking at a mass of things for sale, he would say to himself, 'How many things I have no need of!'

    Permalink to quote #22

Related quotes

  1. The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole men a…

    Albert CamusAlbert Camus quote #78
  2. First come I; my name is Jowett. There's no knowledge but I know it. I am master of this college: What I don't know isn't knowledge.

    Henry Charles BeechingHenry Charles Beeching quote #1
  3. I speak from ignorance. Who once learned much, but speaks from ignorance now.

    Nathaniel TarnNathaniel Tarn quote #1