do you agree that immagination is far more important than knowledge?

Question

Albert Einstein said this

Answer 1

Knowledge puffs up.
Wisdom builds up.

And imagination (with one "m", BTW) is necessary to float away on the clouds, to dance through the meadows of one's mind, and play there, and then bring forth into this world the beautiful things inside of you.
It is the magic word.

Answer 2

While in college, I took a course on Rene Descartes' book "Passions of the Soul", in a country whose educational system emphasizes rote memorization. (Lest I cause an international incident here, that country shall remain unnamed.)

At each week's class, two students were to give separate presentations about the portion of the book assigned for that class. The two dozen or so presentations I heard were all exactly the same -- each was a straight regurgitation of the text, which left it unclear not only whether the student understood it, but whether the philosophical questions Descartes raised even touched his mind. It made you wonder whether there was any point to these students reading Descartes, if all they could do was parrot. They might as well have been summarizing toothpaste commercials.

Although most people understand "imagination" as something necessary to invent new things, I would submit that at a more fundamental level, imagination is needed to comprehend and analyze what is already before us. Knowledge is food for the mind, but imagination is the enzyme. You can have a very large meal, but if you lack the enzymes to digest it, you will starve to death. Knowledge is only the first step toward understanding -- but imagination is what is needed to give what we know meaning.

Answer 3

I think imagination is something of great importance and beauty. But I truly think both are of equal importance, i'm an artist(or at least tha'st what i want to believe), and sometimes get asked more or less the same question. In my case being able to draw or paint is useless without imagination, and imagination is useless if i don't know how to draw or paint. In the case of Einstein he considered himself rather mediocre when it came to mathematics. Not that he was bad but compared to his contemporaries he didn't excel in the field. What made him come up with his ideas was imagination, with his famous thought experiments, and is often accused of even cheating. When he wrote his theory of relativity he was unable to prove that light was a constant, so he just assumed it was through a thought experiment. Einstein relied heavily on imagination, which is why i think he said this, but what he wanted to imply is that knowledge isn't everything and it isn't much without imagination and creativity.

Answer 4

The two are just as important.

Somewhere, sometime, someone had to imagine what a modern-day computer would be like, and somewhere, sometime, someone had to use his/her knowledge to create the computer.

However, one must understand that without immagination, there can be no knowledge.

Answer 5

Yes...but without knowledge immagination makes no sense

Answer 6

Yes.

Imagination give knowledge wings.

Answer 7

Knowledge without imagination is stagnant, passive, dead...
I agree.

It is the imagination that gives knowledge a chance to apply itself and test its merits or demerits...And what new & beautiful things can be invented, I leave you to imagine!!!

Answer 8

Knowledge is the adult and imagination is the child; the two complement each other.

Answer 9

I think they go hand in hand. They need each other to be effective.

Answer 10

yes i agree with both