Know It Alls Quotes

“During the flames of controversy, opinions, mass disputes, conflict, and world news, sometimes the most precious, refreshing, peaceful words to hear amidst all the chaos are simply and humbly 'I don't know.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“Truth is not fully explosive, but purely electric. You don't blow the world up with the truth; you shock it into motion.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“Nobody knows what God's plan is for your life, but a whole lot of people will guess for you if you let them.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“It's okay to be honest about not knowing rather than spreading falsehood. While it is often said that honesty is the best policy, silence is the second best policy.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“When you’re given the gift of truth, you spend a lot of time trying to tone it down because it is already offensive enough.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Those who always
know what’s best
are
a universal pest.”
― Piet Hein

“Men wanted to be strong. One way to be strong was to be knowledgeable. In so many areas, it was not possible to be knowledgeable without getting a Ph.D. and doing a postdoc. Guns and hunting provided an out for men who wanted to be know-it-alls but who couldn't afford to spend the first three decades of their lives getting up to speed on quantum mechanics or oncology.”
― Neal Stephenson, Reamde

“I believe God himself will someday debate with and answer every objection arrogant men can come up with against him; I believe he will humble us and humor himself. Know-it-alls, pseudo-intellectuals, militant anti-theists, for Christ's sake, or rather their own sake, best beware of getting roasted by their own medicine. Ah! Our delusions of trying to argue against an omniscient Creator.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“Folk like to pretend they know everything about the world. Rich folk especially. Maps are great for that. [...] You don't have blanks on your map, so the folks who draw them shade in a piece and write, 'The Eld.' You might as well burn a hole right through the map for what good that does.”
― Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear

“Sadly, the natural world is not short of people who believe that rattling off Latin names incessantly makes them appear clever, whereas most of us know instinctively that this suggests insecurity at best, but possibly social and sexual dysfunction as well. If somebody corrects you sternly by using an obtuse name for something, they probably know neither human nature nor any other kind very profoundly.”
― Tristan Gooley, How to Connect with Nature

“Life and love are not about what you know, but about what you know you don't know.”
― Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing: The Best of Year One

“Scribes freak me out. Quiet little know-it-alls, acting like they can make or break someone by writing something down.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Ned! if you don’t tell me, it will be quite shameful of you! You always know everything!’‘Yes, Nicky, but you think I know everything because I never tell you anything I am not quite certain of,’ Carlyon replied, looking back at him with his faint smile. ‘What a sad blow it would be to my vanity if you found I could be just as easily mistaken as anyone else! You must let me keep my own counsel until I am certain.”
― Georgette Heyer, The Reluctant Widow

“A know-it-all poses to know everything, so he will therefore tell you anything; although his brain forgets that one crucial thing, which is that other people, too, have brains.”
― Criss Jami

“Don't be this dude. Go f*ck something up today.”
― Trevor Carss

“There’s plenty wrong with the need to be right.”
― Frank Sonnenberg, The Path to a Meaningful Life

“I know them, the American men (and women) of the left. Talking to them always makes me feel like the worst kind of dissident, a right-wing freak (or a Republican, at best), even if I consider myself an honest social democrat. For every mild criticism of life in the system I have been living under for the last forty years they look at me suspiciously, as if I were a CIA agent... But one can hardly blame them. It is not the knowledge about communism they lack - I am pretty sure they know all about it - it's the experience of living under such conditions. So, while I am speaking from 'within' the system itself, they are explaining it to me from without. I do not want to claim that you have to be a hen to lay an egg, only that a certain disagreement between two starting points is normal. But they don't go for that; they need to be right.”
― Slavenka Drakulić, How We Survived Communism & Even Laughed

“The saddest thing about "know-it-alls" and/or "closed minded people" is not their ignorance, but that they are basically admitting they have maximized their potential. These people are the antithesis of the expert or master, who as a direct result of their knowledge knows they do not know everything, so strives to learn more.”
― Frank D. Prestia