Knowledge has always flowed upwards to bishops and kings, not down to serfs and slaves.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The purposeful restriction of knowledge has been at the heart of untold misery and hardship in this world. Serfs were kept illiterate so as to not jeopardize the feudal system. Slaves were kept in the dark on a variety of subjects so as to not provide them the possibility of escape.
To know how to dissimulate is the knowledge of kings.
'Know,' says a wise writer, the historian of kings, 'Know the men that are to be trusted'; but how is this to be? The possession of knowledge involves both time and opportunities. Neither of these are 'handservants at command.'
Where knowledge ends, religion begins.
As dutiful bishops soon discover, authoritarianism, or control from the top down, characterizes the hierarchical tradition.
Knowledge is power.
Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous.
Knowledge once gained casts a light beyond its own immediate boundaries.
Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not, it is wise to affect ignorance.
Knowledge is the life of the mind.
No opposing quotes found.