Is it better to 'think' or to 'know'?

Question

we go to school to be great thinkers. at the same time, we also go to gain knowledge. sure if you're taking a test you can think your way through and pass, but knowledge is helpful as well.

as long as the thought is equal to the knowledge.. which one is better?

some of you have already told great answers, but i said "if the thought was equal to the knowledge..." most of you are giving thought the upper hand.

Answer 1

You can't have one without the other, honestly, so I don't think that either one can trump the other.

One needs knowledge to think, and one needs to think in order to apply their knowledge and give it meaning.

Answer 2

Because nobody really knows anything. Everything is subjective, you only think you know. So naturally thinking does have the upper hand so to speak. And you don't go to school to learn how to be great thinkers. Where did you get that idea? You go to be conditioned to society and brainwashed. By euro directed thinking and the same old, same old. Have you or anyone you know had an original thought. Knowledge means nothing. Experience is the better teacher.

Answer 3

Without thinking, there is no knowledge as all knowledge stems from thought. As human beings, we have the luxury of building our thoughts on the knowledge of our predecessors, expanding on their ideas. This is what had allowed us to evolve our present state. Thought is more important than knowledge, but given our limited lifetime, we must use existing knowledge to fine tune our thoughts. If there had no knowledge though, we would still think and create knowledge, thus, knowledge is a product of thought. We go to school to obtain knowledge in the hope that we may reach a state of higher thinking.

Answer 4

We can think about only what we know !
Try it out with a child asking it to name a wish, it cannot ask or think of something it never knew !
The knowing happens at its peak when the mind is relatively calm still (thus open & receptive). The mind was relaxed , still when the apple fell, and the laws of gravity came in (of course the earlier inputs contributed to the 'grasping' of the phenomenon involved, but if they had incessantly interfered, the observing of it would not have happened so intensely). We can only think of something we already know, and make a new permutation and combination of it to make it appear like 'never before known' !

Answer 5

The further you go on your quest for knowledge---the less you know. There is a fine line between genius and insanity. I don't believe that thought is equal to knowledge because of the danger. I'd rather keep my thought process in tact.

Answer 6

Ever hear of the phrase "The more I learn, the less I know." You can never really "know" a whole lot. Thinking is something we must never stop doing. Once we stop we become slave to the mainstream and as we know that's not always a good thing.

Answer 7

Well one cant exist without the other - can it? I ean we think about a subjest so as to acauint ourselfs with it therfore we know it, i admit in a child like state but non the less we know it so both is my answer.

Answer 8

Well as history much of what we think we "know" will probably be proved wrong. Therefore i think to be a dynamic and visionary thinker is more important

Answer 9

Depends on the situation. Both can be great depending....if you know than there is no questin but thinking lends to the idea that anything is possible.

Answer 10

When you think you are conscious and you know from the heart. When you read and learn externally you know but cannot verify it. It's all in your heart, we human beings already know everything we just need to remember consciously from within.