The More You Look, The Less You Know

From the film The Man Who Wasn't There:

"But now, all the disconnected things seem to hook up. That's the funny thing about going away, knowing the date that you're gonna die... Well, it’s like pulling away from the maze. While you’re in the maze you go through willy-nilly, turning where you think you have to turn, banging into dead ends, one thing after another. But get some distance on it, and all those twists and turns, why, they’re the shape of your life. It’s hard to explain, but seeing it whole gives you some peace."


"They got this guy, in Germany. Fritz something-or-other. Or is it. Maybe it's Werner. Anyway, he's got this theory, you wanna test something, you know, scientifically - how the planets go round the sun, what sunspots are made of, why the water comes out of the tap - well, you gotta look at it. But sometimes, you look at it, your looking changes it. You can't know the reality of what happened, or what would've happened if you hadn'ta stuck in your goddamn schnozz. So there is no 'what happened.' Not in any sense that we can grasp with our puny minds. Because our minds... our minds get in the way. Looking at something changes it. Sometimes, the more you look, the less you really know. It's a fact. A proven fact. In a way, it's the only fact there is."


"Sometimes knowledge is a curse, Ed."