One of the greatest things that ever taught me a super lesson was when I seen a baby come out of my woman's womb. The head and body - you know, a baby's born inside a woman's stomach, you know all that. But to watch this thing come out and fight for life, yo, and to see the woman's risking her life at the same time this thing is fighting for life, you know what I mean?
RZAThe knowledge of self is the most important thing, because how are you going to know God if you don't know yourself? How are you going to know anything if you don't know yourself?
RZAThere's the 5% of the people that are wise and righteous and I'd definitely be amongst them, building, communicating, and continuing to try and figure out how we can awaken the 85%. The 85% are walking around [like] cattle, not realizing the things we do, the violence we do; you see people falling victim to all sorts of unnecessary things because they just don't know the way and nobody is showing them the way.
RZADo the knowledge, meaning: look, listen, observe, and also respect. If you do that, you'll have a strong foundation to build anything you want to do in life upon. Know before you do. Look before you leap. And if you want to follow in my footsteps, make sure you step in the ones that went in the right direction.
RZAThe word "knowledge" itself, we like to break it down into two different words, "know" and "ledge." You've got to know the ledge. Know the limitation of things. Know where they go, know where they start from. We say knowledge is the basic foundation of the universe. But everything is first based on something being known. Then, when it's known, then it can be manifested.
RZA