The Will to Know

The will to know is more deep-rooted than the will to live or the will to believe. An infant picks up the watch of its father and listens to its ticking. The child is not satisfied with the apparent knowledge, but wants to know the origin of the tick. He pulls the watch to pieces, that is to say, he analyses it.

Knowledge is power, they say. It is by knowledge of the laws of nature that nature is controlled; but our chief prerogative is to know the general truth which is the basis of all minor truths. A vast machine has thousands of wheels within wheels, but the origin of the power is the electric principle on which the machine is based.

Superficial knowledge does not satisfy the human spirit. We cease to know only when we are dead. The fundamental knowledge, by which the whole fabric of knowledge is understood, is called Truth. It is the principle which is unchangeable and the basis of all changes. If change is attributed to truth, then how can we differentiate truth from not-truth?