Don MurrayMy ignorance is essential. I do not write what I know but what I need to know.
About This Quote
"My ignorance is essential." This is a quote from the great Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who I think is often underappreciated. Goethe believed that it's not what you know that's important. It's what you need to know. This is the idea behind Goethe's famous saying, "My ignorance is essential." He said it when he was in his forties, and he was already the most powerful man in Germany. He had all the knowledge of the world at his disposal, but he still worked on new ideas about art, science, politics—you name it.
He didn't just rehash what he'd already thought of. As you probably know, Goethe saw himself as a creative artist. That meant that he didn't just learn facts—he wanted to learn about everything that could influence him in making decisions about his work. So he studied science—but most importantly, he read books of philosophy and history. Goethe always said that his way of learning was different from most people's.
People think they learn most by reading books, but Goethe says he learned by doing things over and over again. Instead of reading a book on physics or chemistry once, I'll just work with something for a while to see if I can learn something new. Then when I'm finished with my experiment or when I run out of things to try with it, I'll move on to the next thing. But when you're learning everything in this way, one thing will become clear: You have to have an open mind all the time! You have to continue working in this way until you understand things completely—because you never know when you might run into something new that has never been seen before!
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