How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
It whispers to us that there are great things on this earth of ours, and that we can know them if we try, and that we must know them. We ask, why must we know, but it has no answer to give us. We must know that we may know. (1.25)
For Equality 7-2521, knowledge is an end in itself. It's just good to understand the world – there needn't be any other reason to do it. Here he says that knowledge itself enough. It's also interesting to think about whether this idea fits with the idea suggested later in Anthem that Equality 7-2521 is pursuing knowledge because it makes him happy to do so. Are pursuing knowledge for its own sake ("We must know that we may know") and pursuing knowledge because it makes you happy the same thing?
Quote #5
We have stolen glass vials and powders and acids from the Home of the Scholars. Now we sit in the tunnel for three hours each night and we study. We melt strange metals, and we mix acids, and we cut open the bodies of the animals which we find in the City Cesspool. (1.66)
Equality 7-2521 has now taken up science on his own, without any approval from society. He chooses to spend his time alone doing science experiments. And apparently he does all kinds of stuff – Physics, Chemistry, Biology.
Quote #6
We, Equality 7-2521, have discovered a new power of nature. And we have discovered it alone, and we are alone to know it. (3.1)
Equality 7-2521's scientific explorations have yielded a result: he's found a "new power of nature." He was able to do this because he was willing to admit what he didn't know, and willing to submit nature to experiment. This stands he in direct contrast to the Scholars in his society. And he's done this alone, as an individual, with no help from anyone else. Single-handedly, he's outsmarted the combined scientific forces of his society.