Which says more - "knowledge is power; sharing knowledge is powerful" or "knowledge is potential power while using it is applied power"? Why?

I would go with, sharing knowledge is powerful.

This is my opinion.

Knowledge is power. Not necessarily power that should be held for oneself, but power which if distributed equally among all can lead to revolutions, changes, and progress.

Take history for example. This is probably one of my favorite topics to research and though I've expended inordinate amounts of effort researching antiquity, I've started dabbling in other areas of history closer to our own time period.

History repeats itself. This isn't something that's just a catch phrase that gets tossed about here and there, it's more of a reality than we'd like to acknowledge. History isn't just the story of battles, events, and nations, etc... it's the story of humanity. And humanity, as much as we'd like to think we're super advanced... we're no different than the same people who built ancient nations during the dawn of civilization. So, it's no surprise that we repeat the same mistakes we made before from time to time.

Through having knowledge of what came before, we can all work together to do something differently. We can work to achieve things and overcome obstacles that, even though these particular obstacles never applied to our forebears - we can still draw parallels to things that have already happened in the human story.

Knowledge also allows us to see past the things that social media, the news, and political elements would like us to be spun up over all the time. By seeing past the Facebook post, past the 5 minute sound bite, past the trappings of modern social justice movements - we can see that we are all stuck on this insignificant rock together and like it or not, we either need to learn to get along and start pushing for the stars or we will inevitably end as a species. This isn't a question of 'if' either. It's a question of 'when.'

The pursuit of knowledge drives me.

Granted, I'm more drawn to subject matter that catches my interest at a particular point in time, but having a large base upon which to draw from allows me to remain politically independent and see more than one side to an issue or a group of issues. Knowledge and the sharing of knowledge allow for us to meet in the middle and work together to reach compromises and goals larger than ourselves.

I abhor those who hold knowledge and refuse to share. Some people do see it as a form of individual power which they try to use to further their own agendas and careers.

My opinion is and always will be that knowledge is not only power, but is crucial for us to move toward a more rational and advanced future.

Shared Knowledge is power as long as the source comes from legitimate facts.