Famous quotes
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“I do see one large and grievous kind of ignorance, separate from the rest, and as weighty as all the other parts put together. Thinking that one knows a thing when one does not know it. Through this, I believe, all the mistakes of the mind are caused in all of us.”
Plato (429–349 BC) said by 349 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wisdom which knows what are and are not dangers is opposed to the ignorance of them”
Plato (429–349 BC) said by 349 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Vietnam is about halfway around the world from Washington. It's as large as the major European nations, with nearly 130,000 square miles... Its ancient recorded history goes back to 111 B.C... We entered (that country) with considerable ignorance.”
Barry Goldwater (1909–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think he’s a disaster … In human rights and taking care of people and treating people equal. … I think there’s been an attitude of ignorance toward the truth by President Trump.”
Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks on President Donald Trump, as quoted in "The un-celebrity president" by Kevin Sullivan and Mary Jordan The Washington Post (August 17, 2018)
“There is no slavery but ignorance. Liberty is the child of intelligence. The history of man is simply the history of slavery, of injustice and brutality, together with the means by which he has, through the dead and desolate years, slowly and painfully advanced.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you could only imprison a thought, then intellectual tyranny might succeed. If you could only take an argument and put a striped suit of clothes on it -- if you could only take a good, splendid shining fact and lock it up in some dungeon of ignorance, so that its light would never again enter the mind of man, then you might succeed in stopping human progress. Otherwise, no.”
Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) said by 1899 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every intellectual revolution which has ever stirred humanity into greatness has been a passionate protest against inert ideas. Then, alas, with pathetic ignorance of human psychology, it has proceeded by some educational scheme to bind humanity afresh with inert ideas of its own fashioning.”
Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance is the mother of admiration.”
George Chapman (1559–1634) said by 1634 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is it not better to be in ignorance than to believe falsely?”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cold calculated awareness that their power lay in keeping the people in ignorance.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I’m not trying to frighten you, but only a fool makes predictions based on ignorance; I am not that sort of fool.”
Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.”
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) first seen 1861 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (23 January 1861), published in Lord Acton and his Circle (1906) by Abbot Francis Aidan Gasquet, Letter 74
“In every age its [liberty's] progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food.”
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) said by 1902 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All the perplexities, confusions, and distresses in America arise, not from defects in their constitution or confederation, not from a want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.”
John Adams (1735–1826) first seen 1787 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Thomas Jefferson (23 August 1787), The Works of John Adams.
“Selective ignorance, a cornerstone of child rearing. You don't put kids under surveillance: it might frighten you. Parents should sit tall in the saddle and look upon their troops with a noble and benevolent and extremely nearsighted gaze.”
Garrison Keillor (born 1942) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Leaving Home (1987), p. 19
“Believe it or not, the fact is that God is supreme and pure; people are lying on a bed of ignorance and dreams and doubts. They expect God Himself to come, they pray for it, they ask for it, they announce about it, but when He comes they fail to recognize Him. And not recognizing Him in His physical form, they cannot recognize Him within themselves. People have forgotten their Creator.”
Prem Rawat (born 1957) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Johannesburg, South Africa, 29 April 1972 - quoted on p213 of "Who is Guru Maharaj Ji?" published by Bantam, 1973
“Given ignorance in the mix, stupidity was at least as common in politics as astute maneuvering;”
C. J. Cherryh (born 1942) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Invader (1995)
“Innocence might be bliss, but ignorance was demonstrably hell.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Have you determined if it is meant to be a weapon at all?” she said. “We’ve got some very dead people to account for,” Miles pointed out. “That, alas, does not necessarily require a weapon.” Professor Vorthys said. “Carelessness, stupidity, haste, and ignorance are quite as powerfully destructive forces as homicidal intent.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance is not stupidity, but it might as well be.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There’s a plot afoot all right, and I’ll gladly name the forces propelling it—hysteria, ignorance, malice, stupidity, hatred, and fear. What a repugnant spectacle our country has become! Falsehood, cruelty, and madness everywhere, and brute force in the wings waiting to finish us off.”
Philip Roth (1933–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance and obscurantism have never produced anything other than flocks of slaves for tyranny.”
Emiliano Zapata (1879–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks in regard to Pancho Villa, as quoted in The Unknown Lore of Amexem's Indigenous People : An Aboriginal Treatise (2008) by Noble Timothy Myers-El, p. 158
“Our age has robbed millions of the simplicity of ignorance, and has so far failed to lift them to the simplicity of wisdom.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Scientific and humanist revolutionary leaders, on the other hand, cannot believe in the myth of the ignorance of the people.”
Paulo Freire (1921–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He skates saucily over great tracts of confessed ignorance.”
John Updike (1932–2009) first seen 1974 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On T S Matthews, and his biography of T. S. Eliot, Great Tom (1974), in The New Yorker (25 March 1985)
“Sixty years ago I knew everything. Now I know nothing. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”
Will Durant (1885–1981) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "Teachers: The Essence of the Centuries", Time magazine, 13 August 1965
“If your little savage were left to himself and be allowed to retain all his ignorance, he would in time join the infant’s reasoning to the grown man’s passion, he would strangle his father and sleep with his mother.”
Denis Diderot (1713–1784) said by 1784 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We cannot overcome obstacles with ignorance.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Votes should be weighed, not counted. Sooner or later, the state will be wrecked In which majority rules, and ignorance decides.”
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) first seen 1804 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Demetrius (1804-1805)
“The present age has witnessed an extraordinary increase of a thinking public, by the facilities afforded to the diffusion of reading; the former happy resignation to ignorance begins to make way for a state of half-enlightenment, and few persons are willing to remain in the condition in which their birth has placed then.”
Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) said by 1805 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She was strikingly ignorant, but he had known that from the start. What he had not known was how quickly her ignorance would cease to seem charming and would begin to seem contemptible.”
Robert Silverberg (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance can’t be pardoned. Only cured.”
Robert Silverberg (born 1935) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But now persecution is good, because it exists; every law which originated in ignorance and malice, and gratifies the passions from whence it sprang, we call the wisdom of our ancestors: when such laws are repealed, they will be cruelty and madness; till they are repealed, they are policy and caution.”
Sydney Smith (1771–1845) first seen 1808 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Peter Plymley's Letters (1808), Letter V
“Profound ignorance makes a man dogmatical; he who knows nothing thinks he can teach others what he just now has learned himself; whilst he who knows a great deal can scarcely imagine any one should be unacquainted with what he says, and, therefore, speaks with more indifference.”
Jean de La Bruyère (1645–1696) said by 1696 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance.”
Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Next to the ministry I know of no more noble profession than the law. The object aimed at is justice, equal and exact, and if it does not reach that end at once it is because the stream is diverted by selfishness or checked by ignorance. Its principles ennoble and its practice elevates.”
William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Law and the Gospel" (1896)
“The little I know, I owe to my ignorance.”
Sacha Guitry (1885–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance, which in behavior mitigates a fault, is, in literature, a capital offense.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art hath an enemy call'd ignorance.”
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) first seen 1598 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Every Man out of His Humour (1598), Act I, scene 1
“We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill.”
Richard Bach (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”
Richard Bach (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.”
Saul Bellow (1915–2005) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account (1976), p. 127
“It was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us.”
Paul Keating (born 1944) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1992 The Redfern Speech, launching International Year of Indigenous Peoples
“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”
Murray Rothbard (1926–1995) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Death Wish of the Anarcho-Communists (1970).
“Through failures one becomes intelligent; but the one who has trained himself in this subject so that he can make others wise through their own failures, has used his intelligence. Ignorance is not stupidity.”
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kant, Immanuel (1996), page 100
“To fight an enemy properly, you have to know what they are. Ignorance is defeat.”
Greg Bear (1951–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The very thought of this Alaska garden is a joyful exhilaration. … Out of all the cold darkness and glacial crushing and grinding comes this warm, abounding beauty and life to teach us that what we in our faithless ignorance and fear call destruction is creation finer and finer.”
John Muir (1838–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Travels in Alaska (1915), chapter 16: Glacier Bay
“The wrongs done to trees, wrongs of every sort, are done in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, for when the light comes, the heart of the people is always right.”
John Muir (1838–1914) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: about 1900, page 429
“Many of the greatest economic evils of our time are the fruits of risk, uncertainty, and ignorance.”
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Except for half a dozen in each town the citizens are proud of that achievement of ignorance which is so easy to come by. To be 'intellectual' or 'artistic' or, in their own word, to be 'highbrow,' is to be priggish and of dubious virtue.”
Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source