We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomenon of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order, that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.
“What’s the thing that could potentially perfect you in a way that would make sense?” And my answer is knowledge, to understand how things work.
A little learning is a dangerous thing! Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again.
As a rule, he or she who has the most information will have the greatest success in life.
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
If we were prepared to gaze upon the mysteries of the kingdom, as they are with God, we should then know that only a very small portion of them has been handed out here and there.
I will not say, as do many, that the more I learn the more I am satisfied that I know nothing; for the more I learn the more I discern an eternity of knowledge to improve upon.
We do not expect to cease learning while we live on earth; and when we pass through the veil, we expect still to continue to learn...[W]e are not capacitated to receive all knowledge at once. We must therefore receive a little here and a little there.
Please note that knowledge is gained by obedience. It comes by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. In the ultimate and full sense it comes only by revelation from the Holy Ghost. There are some things a sinful man does not and cannot know. The Lord’s people are promised: “By the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things” (Moroni 10:5). But if they do not seek the Spirit, if they do not accept the revelations God has given, if they cannot distinguish between the revealed word and the theories of men, they have no promise of gaining a fullness of truth by the power of the Holy Ghost.
The more you know about anything the more interesting it gets. ~ Meredith Lee
Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.
Remember that it is the intelligence that you acquire that is eternal, the truth which you learn here and apply in your lives, the knowledge and experience you gain and profit by---these you will take with you when you go home.
The greatest torment the Prophet Joseph endured "and the greatest mental suffering was because this people would not live up to their privileges.... He said sometimes that he felt...as though he were pent up in an acorn shell, and all because the people...would not prepare themselves to receive the rich treasures of wisdom and knowledge that he had to impart. he could have revealed a great many things to us if we had been ready; but he said there were many things that we could not receive because we lacked that diligence...necessary to entitle us to those choice things of the kingdom."
Merely gathering knowledge may become the most useless work a man can do. What can you do to help and heal the world? That is the educational test.
I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.
New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.
The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.
We live in a time when with a single touch or voice command, we can begin searching for answers on almost any topic in the immensity of data stored and organized in a vast and complex network of computers. On the other hand, we have the simplicity of the invitation to begin seeking answers from heaven. “Pray always, and I will pour out my Spirit upon you.” Then the Lord promises, “And great shall be your blessing—yea, even more than if you should obtain treasures of earth.”
Knowledge saves a man; and in the world of spirits no man can be exalted but by knowledge.
If a man has knowledge, he can be saved; although, if he has been guilty of great sins, he will be punished for them. But when he consents to obey the gospel, whether here or in the world of spirits, he is saved.
A man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge, for if he does not get knowledge, he will be brought into captivity by some evil power in the other world, as evil spirits will have more knowledge, and consequently more power than many men who are on the earth.
Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
He says that all things that pertain to life and godliness were given unto them through the knowledge of God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
And he who possesses it will, through it, obtain all necessary knowledge and wisdom until he shall know God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has sent: whom to know is eternal life: Amen.
This is the man who declared that if you "gaze into heaven five minutes, you would know more than you would by reading all that ever was written on the subject." It is the man who on another occasion said of one vision in particular, "I could explain a hundred fold more than I ever have of the glories of the kingdoms manifested to me in the vision, were I permitted, and were the people prepared to receive them."
The Prophet Joseph taught of the importance of knowing that the path we are pursuing in this lifetime is approved of God. Without that knowledge, we “will grow weary in [our] minds, and faint.”
One must know a great many unimportant things in order to know those few things which are important. ~ Joseph Bane
When a definition is contextually revised, the new definition does not contradict the old one. The facts identified in the old definition remain facts; the knowledge earlier gained remains knowledge. What changes is that, as one's field of knowledge expands, these facts no longer serve to differentiate the units. The new definition does not invalidate the content of the old; it merely refines a distinction in accordance with the demands of a growing cognitive context.
Our knowledge grows in stages, and we organize at each stage only the facts that are available.
Conceptual knowledge is not acquired in a state of total ignorance or from a vantage point of omniscience. At any stage of development, from child to sage and from savage to scientist, man can make conceptual differentiations and integrations only on the basis of prior knowledge, the specific limited knowledge available to him at that stage. Man's mind functions on the basis of a certain context. The context, states Miss Rand, "is the entire field of a mind's awareness or knowledge at any level of its cognitive development.
When one decides whether or not to deal with hard doctrines, the tendency is to put them off or to be put off by them. Not only are they in some respects puzzling, but they may even offend our mortal pride. The hardness is usually not in their complexity, but in the deep demands these doctrines make of us. They are actually harder to accept than to understand, for there is a breathtaking simplicity about them.
Perhaps the tilt to the telestial occurs because many feel less compromised when they are led carefully down the paved, gently descending, wide way, on which there is no exhilaration, whereas in climbing up the straight and narrow way, one seems to notice every chuckhole and all the loose gravel. In any event, to ignore the hard doctrines deprives us of much-needed doctrinal rations for the rigorous journey. The lyrics "Come, let us anew our journey pursue" (Hymns, no. 17) suggest getting on with our impending mortal experiences, some of the most glorious of which will be adventures of the mind and heart as we ponder and explore new truths—truths that both penetrate us and envelop us.
There is an attitudinal and behavioral bridge that we need to build in order for us to draw closer to Him, and thus be ready to return Home—cum laude or summa cum laude—to receive of His loving fullness. We must want to do this more than we want to do anything else. Otherwise, even if we void wickedness, our journey will end in the suburbs, somewhere short of the City of God.
The central doctrines can quicken in us this desire for a full reunion. The hard sayings can help us in hard times, so that we do not lose the way. These sublime truths will enliven our consciences and stir our dimmed memories of promises made and vows taken—and at those very moments when we would otherwise be pulled from the path. These key truths, when kept before us, will lift our hopes and our eyes when we are downcast or in despair, and will lift our minds and thoughts from lower inclinations that are unworthy of who we are.
Extraordinary truths can move us to extraordinary accomplishments
Few doctrines, save those pertaining to the reality of the existence of God, are more basic than the truth that God is omniscient. "O how great the holiness of our God! For he knoweth all things, and there is not anything save he knows it." (2 Nephi. 9:20.) Unfortunately, this truth is sometimes only passively assented to by individuals who avoid exploring it and coming to understand its implications. Later on, such believers sometimes have difficulty with the implications of this core doctrine—which connects with other powerful doctrines such as the foreknowledge of God,foreordination, and foreassignment. The all-loving God who shapes our individual growing and sanctifying experiences—and then sees us through them—could not do so if He were not omniscient.
Since we cannot fully comprehend any one of God's perfected attributes, we surely cannot comprehend them in the aggregate. But we can have faith in Him and in His attributes as He has described these to us. This is what He asks of us. We may say that this is a lot to ask, but anything less will not do.
Those who try to qualify God's omniscience fail to understand that He has no need to avoid ennui by learning new things. Because God's love is also perfect,there is, in fact, divine delight in that "one eternal round" which, to us, seems to be all routine and repetition. God derives His great and continuing joy and glory by increasing and advancing His creations, and not from new intellectual experiences.
Jesus' tutoring but disapproving response was: "Ye know not what ye ask." (Matthew 20:22.) Clearly, when our prayers are uninspired, we petition for things we should not ask for, even though we do so innocently. This is, in effect, what we do when we pray and "ask amiss." (James 4:3.) When we ask amiss, God, being perfect, must reject our petitions: "And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you." (3 Nephi 18:20. Italics added.) The task is to draw close enough to the Lord that we progress to the point where we petition Him according to His will, not ours. "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us." (1 John 5:14.) In modern revelations the Lord has declared His willingness to grant us the requests contained in our petitions if what we ask for is expedient for us. (D&C 88:64-65.) When we become sufficiently purified and cleansed from sin, we can ask what we will in the name of Jesus "and it shall be done." (D&C 50:29.) The Lord even promises us that when one reaches a certain spiritual condition, "it shall be given you what you shall ask." (D&C 50:30.)
When we pray, we are not conveying any information to God that He does not already have. Nor, when we confess our sins before Him, is it news to Him that we have misbehaved. It is vital, therefore, that we open our souls to Him and tell Him what our concerns are now, as well as acknowledge what we now are, for this is a part of the process of aligning ourselves with His will. We cannot, for the purposes of real prayer, hurriedly dress our words and attitudes in tuxedos when our shabby life is in rags. More than we realize, being honest with God in our prayers helps us to be more honest with ourselves. Furthermore, some of us actually feel we are too good for a petitionary prayer, especially when life is going reasonably well. It is part of our childish resentment of our dependency on God. We are also sometimes too proud to pray over small things, and thus we get out of practice. Then the moment of agony comes.
*Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,* according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us unto glory and virtue.
This society in which knowledge workers dominate is in danger of a new "class conflict" between the large minority of knowledge workers and the majority of workers who will make their livings through traditional ways, either by manual work... or by service work. The productivity of knowledge work - still abysmally low - will predictably become the economic challenge of the knowledge society. On it will depend the ability of the knowledge society to give decent incomes, and with them dignity and status, to non knowledge people.
I think the educated person of the future is somebody who realizes the need to continue to learn. That is the new definition and it is going to change the world we live in and work in.
The search for knowledge pushes back the unknown that encroaches, making the world more predictable and, hopefully, making us less anxious.
Sincere questions lead the earnest seeker to knowledge and revelation.
Though there are things about the priesthood as it relates to both men and women that I don't understand, this does not concern me, because wrestling with spiritual questions is a fundamental aspect of mortality. It is an exercise that strengthens our faith and spurs our growth, if we'll allow it to. Learning, after all, is integral to progression.
In doing so, he maid it possible for those who become sons and daughter of Christ to receive the fulness of the blessings the Father has for His children, explaining that "there was nothing made known to these men but what will be made known to all the Saints of the last days, so soon as they are prepared to receive [them]."
Knowing more enable us to do more and to do better.
The Lord has promised us that which we learn in this world will be a benefit to us in the worlds to come.
Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.
He will not abandon His children who trust in Him. In the night of death His presence will be "better than a light and safer than a known way."
John Calvin, prematurely aged by sickness and by the incessant labors he had undertaken, summed up his personal philosophy with this statement: "All our wisdom comprises basically two things . . . the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves."
William Tyndale would perhaps suffice. Tyndale felt that the people had a right to know what was promised to them in the scriptures. To those who opposed his work of translation, he declared: "If God spare my life, I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the scripture than thou doest."........testimony of the plowboy who became a prophet(Joseph Smith)
Let me remind each of us, however, that education doesn't simply mean that we attend school. Education means that we learn to think. Henry Ford put it in words when he said, "An educated man is not one who has trained his mind to remember a few dates in history. He is one who can accomplish things. If a man cannot think, he is not an educated man, regardless of how many college degrees he may have attained. Thinking is the hardest work a man can do, which is probably the reason we have so few thinkers."
Knowledge through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the grand key that unlocks the glories and mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." (History of the Church 5:389.)
In a revelation given through the Prophet Joseph Smith at Kirtland, Ohio, in May of 1833, the Lord declared: "Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come. . . . The Spirit of truth is of God. . . . He [Jesus] received a fulness of truth, yea, even of all truth; And no man receiveth a fulness unless he keepeth his commandments. He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things." (D&C 93:24, 26-28.) There is no need for you or me in this enlightened age, when the fulness of the gospel has been restored, to sail uncharted seas or travel unmarked roads in search of a "fountain of truth." For a living Heavenly Father has plotted our course and provided an unfailing map—obedience
Such was the burden of our Savior's message, when He declared: "For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world." (D&C 132:5.)
Jesus changed men. He changed their habits, their opinions, their ambitions. He changed their tempers, their dispositions, their natures. He changed men's hearts. The passage of time has not altered the capacity of the Redeemer to change men's lives. As He said to the dead Lazarus, so He says to you and me: "Come forth." (John 11:43.) Come forth from the despair of doubt. Come forth from the sorrow of sin. Come forth from the death of disbelief. Come forth to a newness of life. Come forth.
An invasion of armies can be resisted; an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted.
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.
But men can only bear light to come in upon them by degrees.
Freely sharing knowledge is by nature an act of kindness...
The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.
I am never afraid of what I know.
One who believes himself to have all the answers certainly hasn't asked all the questions.
The end of all knowledge should be virtuous action.
Knowledge is of two kinds, we know the subject for ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
The most important things in our lives are those learned after we think we know everything.
An education isn't how much you have committed to memory or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don't. It's knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it's knowing how to use the information you get.
We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomenon of nature is so great, and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich, precisely in order, that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.
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