QuoteProject
So with each advance in understanding come new questions. So we need to be very humble. We shouldn’t have hubris and think that we can understand everything. But history tells us that there is good reason to believe that we will continue making fantastic progress in the years ahead.
Max Tegmark
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Advancing knowledge brings more questions, and humility is essential in the pursuit of understanding.

This quote by Max Tegmark emphasizes the idea that as we gain knowledge and understanding, it naturally leads to the emergence of new questions. It reminds us that we should remain humble and avoid arrogance in our quest for understanding, acknowledging that while we can make great strides in knowledge, there will always be more to learn and discover.

Themes

UnderstandingHumilityKnowledgeQuestionsProgress

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about scientific research, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of remaining open-minded.

More from Max Tegmark

If life were a movie, physical reality would be the entire DVD: Future and past frames exist just as much as the present one.
Max TegmarkRead
I believe that consciousness is the way information feels when being processed.
Max TegmarkRead

Similar quotes

Do not abandon trust when your ego thinks things should be different than they are.
Wayne DyerRead
I've always had a weakness for lost causes once they're really lost.
Margaret MitchellRead
Men develop ideas and systems of explanation by absorbing past knowledge and critiquing and superseding it. Women, ignorant of their own history [do] not know what women before them had thought and taught. So generation after generation, they [struggle] for insights others had already had before them, [resulting in] the constant inventing of the wheel.
Gerda LernerRead
Difficulties strengthen the mind, as labor does the body.
Seneca The YoungerRead
Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect.
Woody HayesRead
The first step is to measure whatever can easily be measured. This is OK as far as it goes. The second step is to disregard that which can't be easily measured or to give it an arbitrary quantitative value. This is artificial and misleading. The third step is to presume that what can't be measured easily really isn't important. This is blindness. The fourth step is to say that what can't be easily measured really doesn't exist. This is suicide.
Charles HandyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.