Knowledge and understanding

"Perhaps we know more about the world then we used to and insofar as knowledge is prerequisite to understanding, that is all to the good. But knowledge is not as much a prerequisite to understanding as is commonly supposed. We do not have to know everything about something in order to understand it; too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understanding as too few.  There is a sense in which we moderns are inundated with facts to the detriment of understanding." 

Mortimer J. Adler and Charles Van Doren in "How to Read a Book"