He was one of those men who possess almost every gift, except the gift of the power to use them.
Charles KingsleyRead
You must not talk about 'ain't and can't' when you speak of this great wonderful world round you, of which the wisest man knows only the very smallest corner, and is, as the great Sir Isaac Newton said, only a child picking up pebbles on the shore of a boundless ocean.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Knowledge is vast and our understanding of it is limited, akin to a child's play in a limitless world.
This quote emphasizes the humility required in the pursuit of knowledge. It conveys that even the most learned individuals, represented by the wisest man, have only a fraction of understanding compared to the vastness of the world and knowledge around them, as illustrated by Sir Isaac Newton's metaphor of a child collecting pebbles by the ocean.
Themes
KnowledgeHumilityWisdomUnderstandingNature
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture about the significance of lifelong learning, you could use this quote to illustrate the vastness of knowledge.
More from Charles Kingsley
All quotes →Beauty is God's handwriting — a wayside sacrament; welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair flower, and thank for it Him.
Charles KingsleyRead
Take comfort, and recollect however little you and I may know, God knows; He knows Himself and you and me and all things; and His mercy is over all His works.
Charles KingsleyRead
Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.
Charles KingsleyRead
Do today's duty, fight to-day's temptation; and do not weaken and distract yourself by looking forward to things which you cannot see, and could not understand if you saw them.
Charles KingsleyRead
A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend, one human soul whom we can trust utterly, who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults.
Charles KingsleyRead
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