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Ignorance quotes

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“In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“there is no darkness but ignorance;” William Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night” - 1623

“If youth were not ignorant and timid, civilization would be impossible.” Honoré de Balzac, “Father Goriot” - 1835

“nothing is so firmly believed, as what we least know;” Michel de Montaigne, “The Essays of Michel de Montaigne” - 1580

“And seeing ignorance is the curse of God, Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven, Unless you be possess'd with devilish spirits, You cannot but forbear to murder me:” William Shakespeare, “Henry VI, Part 2” - 1623

“I was a young man who attempted to make up for his ignorance with militancy.” Nelson Mandela, “Long Walk to Freedom” - 1995

“She said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of a lack of knowledge.” Maya Angelou, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” - 1969

“RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1911

“Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.” Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia” - 1785

“Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may properly be charged with evil who refused to learn how he might prevent it.” Samuel Johnson, “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia” - 1759

“The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point.” Albert Camus, “The Plague” - 1947

“I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.” J. D. Salinger, “The Catcher in the Rye” - 1951

“People are bloody ignorant apes.” Samuel Beckett, “Waiting for Godot” - 1953

“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, “Emile, or On Education” - 1762

“If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you and you'll never learn.” Ray Bradbury, “Fahrenheit 451” - 1953

“Avoidable human misery is more often caused not so much by stupidity as by ignorance, particularly our ignorance about ourselves.” Carl Sagan, “The Demon-Haunted World” - 1995

“I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone.” Oscar Wilde, “The Importance of Being Earnest” - 1895

“His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing.” Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet” - 1887

“Nevertheless, so profound is our ignorance, and so high our presumption, that we marvel when we hear of the extinction of an organic being; and as we do not see the cause, we invoke cataclysms to desolate the world, or invent laws on the duration...” Charles Darwin, “On The Origin of Species” - 1859

“One can't judge till one's forty; before that we're too eager, too hard, too cruel, and in addition much too ignorant.” Henry James, “The Portrait of a Lady” - 1881

“Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.” Henry Adams, “The Education of Henry Adams” - 1906

“The less a tourist knows, the fewer mistakes he need make, for he will not expect himself to explain ignorance.” Henry Adams, “The Education of Henry Adams” - 1906

“And, in fine, of false sciences I thought I knew the worth sufficiently to escape being deceived by the professions of an alchemist, the predictions of an astrologer, the impostures of a magician, or by the artifices and boasting of any of those...” René Descartes, “Discourse on the Method” - 1637

“But, above all, it will confer an inestimable benefit on morality and religion, by showing that all the objections urged against them may be silenced for ever by the Socratic method, that is to say, by proving the ignorance of the objector.” Immanuel Kant, “Critique of Pure Reason” - 1791

“And Credulity, because men love to be hearkened unto in company, disposeth them to lying: so that Ignorance it selfe without Malice, is able to make a man bothe to believe lyes, and tell them; and sometimes also to invent them.” Thomas Hobbes, “Leviathan” - 1651

“Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant.” Jane Austen, “Northanger Abbey” - 1817

“There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion;” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“Man . . . how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!” Mary Shelley, “Frankenstein” - 1818

“right is right, and wrong is wrong, and a body ain't got no business doing wrong when he ain't ignorant and knows better.” Mark Twain, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” - 1884

“LEARNING, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1906

Related topics

knowledge youth learning understanding evil religion morality education wisdom truth fear God darkness reading lie poverty purity stupidity hope philosophy

Related authors

William Shakespeare (2)
Henry Adams (2)
Ambrose Bierce (2)
Jane Austen (1)
Oscar Wilde (1)
Mark Twain (1)
George Orwell (1)
Nelson Mandela (1)
Maya Angelou (1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1)
Arthur Conan Doyle (1)
Charles Darwin (1)
Henry James (1)
Honoré de Balzac (1)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1)
René Descartes (1)
Immanuel Kant (1)
Thomas Jefferson (1)
Carl Sagan (1)
Samuel Johnson (1)

Related sources

The Education of Henry Adams (2)
The Devil's Dictionary (2)
Twelfth Night (1)
Henry VI, Part 2 (1)
Northanger Abbey (1)
The Importance of Being Earnest (1)
1984 (1)
Long Walk to Freedom (1)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1)
Self-Reliance (1)
A Study in Scarlet (1)
On The Origin of Species (1)
The Portrait of a Lady (1)
Father Goriot (1)
Discourse on the Method (1)
Critique of Pure Reason (1)
Notes on the State of Virginia (1)
The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1)
The Essays of Michel de Montaigne (1)
The Plague (1)