Q0646

“They know they don't have all the answers. They're humble enough to…” — Kwame Anthony Appiah (Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of…)

Verified English quotation. Primary source: Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers；cf. “The Case for Contamination, ” NYT Magazine (1 Jan 2006). Theme: humility.

English

They know they don't have all the answers. They're humble enough to think that they might learn from strangers; not too humble to think that strangers can't learn from them.
Thinker Kwame Anthony Appiah
School Africana Philosophy
Source Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers；cf. “The Case for Contamination, ” NYT Magazine (1 Jan 2006)
Theme Humility
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source and attribution

The archive attributes this English wording to Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers；cf. “The Case for Contamination, ” NYT Magazine (1 Jan 2006) and files it under Africana Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

About Kwame Anthony Appiah

Kwame Anthony Appiah (b. 1954) is a British-Ghanaian philosopher who has taught at Princeton, NYU, and elsewhere.

How to read this passage

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Confucius and Kwame Anthony Appiah), humility is framed through Stoicism and Confucianism. Some passages define humility; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through humility, otherness.

Concepts in this quote

Humility
Humility appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat humility as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.
Otherness
Otherness appears in this archive as a live philosophical concern—not a slogan. These verified English passages show how thinkers treat otherness as a problem of judgment, practice, or explanation.

How to cite this quotation

APA: Kwame Anthony Appiah. (n.d.). They know they don't have all the answers. They're humble enough to think that they might learn from strangers; not too humble to think that strangers can't learn from them. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0646

MLA: Kwame Anthony Appiah. “They know they don't have all the answers.….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0646.

Chicago: Kwame Anthony Appiah. “They know they don't have all the answers.….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0646.

Frequently asked questions

What is the source of the quotation “They know they don't have all the answers.…”?

The passage is attributed to Kwame Anthony Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers；cf. “The Case for Contamination, ” NYT Magazine (1 Jan 2006). The archive attributes this English wording to Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers；cf. “The Case for Contamination, ” NYT Magazine (1 Jan 2006) and files it under Africana Philosophy. That locator distinguishes the passage from loose internet attributions: readers can return to the named work or section to check translation, surrounding argument, and edition-specific wording.

What does Kwame Anthony Appiah mean by humility?

Across 4 recurring voices here (notably Confucius and Kwame Anthony Appiah), humility is framed through Stoicism and Confucianism. Some passages define humility; others warn how it fails; still others relocate it inside habit, community, or language. This passage enters that discussion through humility, otherness.

Same thinker

More from Kwame Anthony Appiah

  1. Conversation doesn't have to lead to consensus about anything, especially not values; it's enough that it helps people get used to one another.
  2. The version of cosmopolitanism that I favor is exactly about balancing universality and difference.
  3. Relativism of that sort isn't a way to encourage conversation; it's just a reason to fall silent.
  4. A value is like a fax machine: it's not much use if you're the only one who has one.
  5. Cosmopolitans begin with a sense of one thing we all certainly share, which is our fallibility. Nobody has reason to be confident that they're right about everything.

All quotations by Kwame Anthony Appiah

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