Foolish Things

The more I know, the more I know I don’t know.

There is a danger in reading, and I read too much. The danger is that you will begin to realize how little you know. It can be a real blow to the ego. Lately it seems that whenever I read anything it leads me to further inquiry.

The corollary to the above is that the more I know I don’t know, the more I want to know.

I anticipate that the headache will set in any day now.

“The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.” - C.H. Spurgeon

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.” - Confucius

I have been re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia lately and am currently on The Silver Chair. Last night I read a passage that particularly jumped out at me. It is a speech by everyones favorite Marshwiggle, Puddleglum. He is countering a spell that the villain of the book, an enchantress and self-proclaimed Queen of “Underland”, has been trying to work on him and his companions. The enchantress has been trying to convince them that “Underland” is all that exists and that “Overland” (everything above ground), is either a figment of their imagination or a lie.

All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one thing more to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things — trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for the supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend out lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.

An open mind in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about the ultimate foundations either of Theoretical or Practical Reason is idiocy. If a man’s mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut.

The Abolition of Man