Biographical history, as taught in our public schools, is still largely a history of boneheads: ridiculous kings and queens, paranoid political leaders, compulsive voyagers, ignorant generals -- the flotsam and jetsam of historical currents. The men who radically altered history, the great scientists and mathematicians, are seldom mentioned, if at all.
Gardner, Martin
In G. Simmons Calculus Gems, New York: McGraw Hill, 1992.

de Laplace, Pierre-Simon (1749 - 1827)
What we know is not much. What we do not know is immense.
(Allegedly his last words.)
DeMorgan's Budget of Paradoxes.

Heisenberg, Werner (1901-1976)
An expert is someone who knows some of the worst mistakes that can be made in his subject, and how to avoid them.
Physics and Beyond. 1971.