The small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify we give the name of knowledge.
Interpretation
Knowledge is often just a small portion of the vast unknown, organized and defined by us.
This quote by Ambrose Bierce highlights the distinction between true knowledge and the limited understanding we create from the vast expanse of ignorance. It suggests that what we call 'knowledge' is merely the tiny segment of what we do understand, categorized and arranged from a much larger body of information that remains unknown or ungrasped.
In practice
In a lecture about the importance of continual learning, this quote serves to remind us that what we know is just a fraction of the greater unknown.
PALM, n. A species of tree . . . of which the familiar "itching palm" ("Palma hominis") is most widely distributed . . . . This noble vegetable exudes a kind of invisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a piece of gold or silver.
Human nature is pretty well balanced; for every lacking virtue there is a rough substitute that will serve at a pinch--as cunning is the wisdom of the unwise, and ferocity the courage of the coward.
Indigestion: A disease which the patient and his friends frequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for the salvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the Western Wild put it, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: 'Plenty well, no pray; big belly ache, heap God.'
Disobey n:To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturity of a command
NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that which merely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon is a bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only by a process of reasoning - which is a phenomenon.
PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. To add to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude.
The moment of truth, the sudden emergence of a new insight, is an act of intuition. Such intuitions give the appearance of miraculous flushes, or short-circuits of reasoning. In fact they may be likened to an immersed chain, of which only the beginning and the end are visible above the surface of consciousness. The diver vanishes at one end of the chain and comes up at the other end, guided by invisible links.
Endure the present, and watch for better things.
It is harmful to compare yourself to others. Others will do that for you.
But I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
To try too hard to make people good is one way to make them worse. The only way to make them good is to be good, remembering well the beam and the mote.
Imagination though it cannot wipe out the sting of remorse can instruct the mind in its proper uses.
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