Q0202

Talmudic tradition

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Teach your tongue to say, “I do not know.”
Thinker Talmudic tradition
School Rabbinic Judaism
Source Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 4a
Theme Humility
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 4a, within the tradition of Rabbinic Judaism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of humility, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Talmudic tradition's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Talmudic tradition. (n.d.). Teach your tongue to say, “I do not know.” In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0202

MLA: Talmudic tradition. “Teach your tongue to say, “I do not….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0202.

Chicago: Talmudic tradition. “Teach your tongue to say, “I do not….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0202.

Same thinker

More from Talmudic tradition

  1. If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?
  2. It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.

All quotations by Talmudic tradition

Same theme

More on humility

  1. What I do not know, I do not claim to know.
  2. The beginning of philosophy is a consciousness of one's own weakness and inability concerning necessary things.
  3. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
  4. What do I know?
  5. Any man can err; only a fool persists in error.

Browse the humility theme