Wisdom and Knowledge Quotes in The Ocean at the End of the Lane

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"I'm going to tell you something important. Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. The truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world." (10.48)

Lettie is wise beyond her years (which we know total more than eleven, that's for sure). To a normal kid adults do seem like they know everything and are all-powerful—but to know that on the inside they're not much different than a seven-year-old takes away a little bit of their invulnerability.

Quote #8

The second thing I thought was that I knew everything. Lettie Hempstock's ocean flowed inside me, and it filled the entire universe, from Egg to Rose. I knew that. I knew what Egg was—where the universe began, to the sound of uncreated voices singing in the void—and I knew where Rose was—the peculiar crinkling of space on space into dimensions that fold like origami and blossom like strange orchids, and which would mark the last good time before the eventual end of everything and the next Big Bang, which would be, I knew now, nothing of the kind. (13.24)

Do you know what Egg is?

Quote #9

I saw the world I had walked since my birth and I understood how fragile it was, that the reality I knew was a thin layer of icing on a great dark birthday cake writhing with grubs and nightmares and hunger. (13.26)

If you look at this quote and the one before it (13.24), we can see the contrasts between two ways of viewing knowledge and wisdom. On one hand it's a beautiful symphony of discovery, and on the other it's something dark and dirty and frightening. But on another hand it could be something totally neutral… but then you'd have three hands, so we'll just leave it at that.