Ibn Hazm Quotes on Knowledge
Abu Muhammad Ali Ibn Hazm was an Andalusian polymath, jurist, theologian, philosopher, and poet, one of the foremost minds of medieval Islamic Spain. This page collects quotes attributed to Ibn Hazm on the topic of knowledge, drawn from across the philosopher's works.
Quotes
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Attributed to Ibn Hazm:
“The proper philosopher follows the evidence wherever it leads.”
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Attributed to Ibn Hazm:
“Knowledge is more lasting than wealth, more honorable than office.”
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“كلما نقص العقل توهم صاحبه أنه أوفر الناس عقلا وأكمل ما كان تمييزاً”
The less reason someone has, the more he fancies himself the most rational and most discerning of all. Ibn Hazm (a. 1064). "رسالة في مداواة النفوس وتهذيب الأخلاق والزهد في الرذائل". in ʾIḥsān ʿAbbās. رسائل ابن حزم . volume 1 (second ed.). المؤسسة العربية للدراسات والنشر. 1987. p. 397. -
“M. Asin in Al-Andalus ; 1939; vol IV; p. 278.”
What fixes and preserves a nation’s language, as well as its sciences and its history, is simply the strength of its political power, accompanied by the happy welfare and leisure of its inhabitants. -
“Kitab al-Akhlaq wa’l Siyar ; Trsltd by N. Tomiche under the title: Epitre Morale , Collection UNESCO, Beyrouth, 1961, p. 21.”
Compare yourself, for wealth, status and health to those lower than you. For faith, science, and virtue, compare yourself to those who are higher than you. -
“Regarding the role of experiment and observation, Ibn Hazm: Kitab al-fisal fi’l-milal wa-l-ahwa wa-l-nihal , 5 parts in two vols; Cairo, 1899 and 1903; Vol I, p. 72.”
We know with certainty that never could man have acquired the sciences and arts by himself guided only by his natural abilities and without the benefit of instruction. (This applies, e.g., to) medicine, the knowledge of the physiological temperaments, the diseases and their causes, in all their numerous varieties, and the invention of adequate treatment and cure of each of them by drugs or prepara -
“I have come across most people- with the exception of those that God most High has protected-they rush into misery, worry, the exhaustion of this world, and amassing terrible sins, that will earn them hell-fire, gaining nothing in pursuing their evil deeds… And they know that their evil intentions will neither fulfill their wishes, nor bring any gains; and that with purer intentions they will obtain great rest for their souls.”
Kitab al-Akhlaq wa’l Siyar p: 17 -
“Kitab al-Akhlaq wa’l Siyar p: 17”
I have come across most people- with the exception of those that God most High has protected-they rush into misery, worry, the exhaustion of this world, and amassing terrible sins, that will earn them hell-fire, gaining nothing in pursuing their evil deeds… And they know that their evil intentions will neither fulfill their wishes, nor bring any gains; and that with purer intentions they will obta