If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.
Interpretation
Knowledge can lead to challenges, and ignoring them won't offer resolutions.
Isaac Asimov's quote suggests that while knowledge can often present us with problems, simply remaining ignorant is not a solution. To address the complexities that knowledge brings, one must actively engage with and confront those issues rather than avoiding them. It emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and understanding in the face of challenges.
In practice
During a public seminar on decision-making, one might say this quote to emphasize the importance of confronting challenges head-on.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation. Human dignity cannot survive it. Convenience and decency cannot survive it. As you put more and more people into the world, the value of life not only declines, but it disappears. It doesn't matter if someone dies.
Science does not promise absolute truth, nor does it consider that such a thing necessarily exists. Science does not even promise that everything in the Universe is amenable to the scientific process.
Democracy cannot survive overpopulation.
Although the time of death is approaching me, I am not afraid of dying and going to Hell or (what would be considerably worse) going to the popularized version of Heaven. I expect death to be nothingness and, for removing me from all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism.
A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.
During the century after Newton, it was still possible for a man of unusual attainments to master all fields of scientific knowledge. But by 1800, this had become entirely impracticable.
There is no substitute for talent. Industry and all its virtues are of no avail.
I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.
Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt.
The feeble tremble before opinion, the foolish defy it, the wise judge it, the skillful direct it.
We shouldn't be looking for heroes, we should be looking for good ideas.
Extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces.
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