Q0280

Karl Popper

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
Thinker Karl Popper
School Critical Rationalism
Source Conjectures and Refutations
Theme Knowledge
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Conjectures and Refutations, within the tradition of Critical Rationalism. 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 knowledge, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Karl Popper'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: Karl Popper. (n.d.). Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0280

MLA: Karl Popper. “Our knowledge can only be finite, while our….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0280.

Chicago: Karl Popper. “Our knowledge can only be finite, while our….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0280.

Same thinker

More from Karl Popper

  1. We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.
  2. It is easy to obtain confirmations…for nearly every theory—if we look for confirmations.
  3. We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.
  4. Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.

All quotations by Karl Popper

Same theme

More on knowledge

  1. What I do not know, I do not claim to know.
  2. No one errs willingly.
  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. Once in a lifetime, everything must be doubted.

Browse the knowledge theme