Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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“We have reached the point where ignorance and neglect are the best we can hope for in a ruler.”
Lev Grossman (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is how societies are organized that says how they will eradicate ignorance.”
Mongane Wally Serote (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Racism does not diminish with brains, it's a disease, a sickness, it may incubate in ignorance but it doesn't necessarily disappear with the gaining of wisdom!”
Bryce Courtenay (1933–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was captivated by the atmospheric settings portrayed in the documentary, witnessing an American navigating through Makoko sparked a realisation of my ignorance, prompting extensive research about the community. It was during this process that the character of Baby emerged vividly in my mind, compelling me to tell her story.”
Chioma Okereke wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we refuse to listen to Maryto obey what He tells us, when our will does not conform to that of God out of ignorance and refusal to accept it, the feast of our lives is left without the best wine; we no longer celebrate, but rather we waste it and squander it on things that take us away from God, on pride and arrogance that supplant God.”
Héctor Sabatino Cardelli (1941–2022) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hundreds of thousands celebrate feast of Our Lady of the Rosary in Argentina (1 October 2007) Catholic News Agency
“A Prayer For Rain ...let love be brought to ignorance again.”
Lisel Mueller (1924–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Can anything be more absurd than keeping women in a state of ignorance, and yet so vehemently to insist on their resisting temptation?”
Vicesimus Knox (1752–1821) first seen 1792 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Mary Wollstonecraft, (1792), ch. 7
“Writers and artists are meant to be visionaries, people who go into dark places and shed light on it. It’s unfortunate when they become the people who actively spread prejudice, who spread ignorance, who spread stupidity and malice which quite often is what you get”
Biyi Bandele (1967–2022) said by 2022 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When we come up with programmes aimed at raising awareness on gender equality, it is imperative that we take cognisance of directing these programmes at men: most of them have misunderstood the concept of equality, either intentionally or through ignorance. The idea of the male breadwinner and the female homemaker is still dominant in many societies – and southern Africa is no exception.”
Angelika Muharukua (1958–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hard men and women, from Barion’s firsthand recollection: not always thinking of God but seeing Him hard as themselves when they did. Their descendants much the same, not as hard but needing that peculiarly American form of religious ecstasy blended of poverty, ignorance, degenerated mysticism, collected injuries and the need for vengeance.”
Parke Godwin (1929–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My favorite definition of evil is that it is militant ignorance.”
M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This whole country,” says my grandmother evenly, “supports a culture of ignorance and anti-intellectualism which posits that not understanding a phenomenon is just as valid as understanding one, and frankly I’m sick of it.”
Katie Coyle (born 1985) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not my place to tell you whether there is indefeasible ignorance of ultimate reality. I am ignorant of whether there is or is not. But you should think of these things because there are no things more important, though there are no questions more difficult or less answerable. But one's whole life may be changed if one changes his mind about these questions.”
Lewis White Beck (1913–1997) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lewis White Beck, " Praise of Ignorance" in Kant's Legacy: Essays in Honor of Lewis White Beck. (Predrag Cicovacki, 2001), Introduction p. XXV from the Kearse Distinguished Lecture, Rochester Institute of Technology, Ma…
“Prioritize dispelling ignorance: the root cause of poverty.”
John Mulagada (1937–2009) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diocese Holds Rally to Educate Dalits, Women on Rights (21 January 1998) Union of Asian Catholic News
“Both white and black South Africans produced epistemologies of ignorance, although the terms of the contract were set by white society as the group with the dominant power.”
Melissa Steyn wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance, like a virus, can spread from one institution or claim to another: if people distrust politicians or scientists or whatever in one regard, they may and will distrust them in another. (2020)”
Jack Eller (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are quite correct about the reality of climate change threats in Africa (and the entire world) as well as the relatively low level of awareness of climate change issues by the African society. This apparent ignorance cuts across different facets of the society including private and public sectors, civil societies organizations, professionals, farmers etc.”
Anthonia Ifeyinwa Achike wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance about the role of religion in people’s lives, or a secular fundamentalist attitude which essentialises religion, seeing all religions as the same and all as being largely harmful, are major hindrances to those of us urging a better understanding of the role of the religious in civil society.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yet, like all God’s wonderful gifts to us, this great gift of pain can be turned into a horrible curse. Just in proportion as God’s love provides the possibility of good, so our vice or ignorance makes the possibility of evil. The abuse of God’s gift of pain may be the cause of the most terrible of evils, and we call it cruelty.”
William Brown (veterinarian) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Our Lesser Brethren (1919), p. 24
“It’s hard to recall now that this environmental beacon was once a battlefield and that there was a time when people did not understand the important role birds of prey play in maintaining natural balance. It’s difficult to believe that people’s ignorance was so complete that they thought of hawks as vermin and shot them on sight.”
Pete Dunne (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are moments when one is more ashamed of what is called culture than any one can ever be of ignorance.”
E. V. Lucas (1868–1938) first seen 1910 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Kind Red Lioness", in Punch, vol. 138 (22 June 1910), p. 466
“The intolerance of ignorance, not wanting to know – that is the last real frontier on earth.”
Alistair MacLean (1922–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance may be bliss, but it certainly is not freedom, except in the minds of those who prefer darkness to light, and chains to liberty. The more true information we can acquire, the better for our enfranchisement.”
Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) first seen 1904 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Intellectual Slavery" (January 1904); Papers of a Pariah (Longmans, Green & Co., 1907), p. 34
“There are many closet Nazis in the Republican Party. Most conservatives are closet Nazis. If you scratch a conservative you'll find a Nazi underneath, just as if you scratch a liberal you'll find a communist. I don't think ignorance played that much of a role. Either way, the Republicans don't come out of this looking too hot. There are 56,000 people in this state who are either Nazis or fools.”
Harold Covington (1953–2018) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Associated Press in response to his getting 43% of the state vote in 1980, "Nazi gets 43% of statewide vote", Associated Press (printed in Journal and Courier, p. 1), May 8, 1980, also quoted in Danger: E…
“Within 10 years of Instagram, the Nigerian blogosphere has destroyed the intelligent quotient of the average Nigerian. The space has bred more ignorance and educated illiterates by constantly pushing mannerless and valueless content, celebrating vanity and stupidity.”
Koffi Idowu Nuel (born 1977) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Stop promoting toxicity, Koffi slams blogs. 2 March 2025, Punch Newspaper.
“Never let your ignorance stop you. You can teach yourself, and then you have the asset of a fresh perspective”
Sahar Hashemi (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The subhuman elements in our society, dominated by the accursed Jew, can only intimidate and govern Aryan Man while he remains in abject ignorance of his glorious racial heritage derived from the hoary archives of Lost Atlantis, Tibet and Mother India. In short, as long as Aryan man remains Christian he will inevitably remain a slave to the Jew who imposed his Semitic heresy upon the Aryan mind!”
James H. Madole (1927–1979) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New Atlantis", part 8, National Renaissance Bulletin, July–August 1975, 4, quoted in Kaplan 2001, p. 50
“During my missionary life extending over a period of forty years, I have received many, very many, converts into the Church, and in numberless instances I was told that many of their friends were restrained from entering the Church by ignorance of its doctrines, early prejudices and, in too many cases, by the religious indifference and carelessness of many of their Catholic acquaintances.”
Lawrence Scanlan (1843–1915) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Catholic Church in Utah (1909)
“We are in a position to know very little, and with our vast ignorance, we all need to seek the truth, which cannot be reduced to mere opinion, especially today when there is a worrying return to illiteracy and a infantilization of the public for which the media, especially television, are responsible, as they tend to simplify every message.”
Remo Bodei (1938–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Trump was a dream for officers looking to develop an asset," Shvets told me. "...with Trump it wasn't just weakness. Everything was excessive. His vanity ...Narcissism ...Greed ...Ignorance, excessive.”
Craig Unger (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“relegated to the realm of ignorance and servitude” as a “subordinate class, and most women are seen as something to be “bartered, or sold as a thing of merchandise.”
Mary Elizabeth Britton (1855–1925) said by 1925 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Both psychologically and materially Whites in modern times are called upon to bear the burdens of guilt and monetary reparation for Black slavery. This position is based entirely on enforced ignorance and the deliberate suppression of the record of White slavery in North America.”
Kevin Alfred Strom (born 1956) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Truth About Slavery", American Dissident Voices, 1993, quoted by SPLC
“We fear not science. We deplore ignorance. If the men of science will be true to their reason, we will meet them on every field and teach them the harmonies of nature and of faith. We will show them how the human mind turns from the creature in all its variety and beauty to the creature's God.”
Thomas Scott Preston (1824–1891) first seen 1884 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: God and Reason: Lectures Upon the Primary Truths of Natural Religion (1884)
“This is a time when the whole nation is turning toward the outdoor life, seeking in it the physical regeneration so needful for continued national existence — is waking to the fact long known to thoughtful men, that those live longest who live nearest to the ground, that is, who live the simple life of primitive times, divested, however, of the evils that ignorance in those times begot.”
Ernest Thompson Seton (1860–1946) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Birch-Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians (New York: Doubleday, Page & Co, 1907) "Of the Woodcraft Indians
“The fashion industry and creative industries generally have managed to thrive for so many years while flourishing in legal ignorance. As such, it has been hard trying to make them see why the law is relevant to them and why they need to have business structures to grow their craft”
Elizabeth Lenjo (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Aside from legal ignorance and lack of use of intellectual property laws as a continent, we are also not trading with each other. Which is largely a fault in policy making and visionary leadership”
Elizabeth Lenjo (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before I was married I knew nothing about station life," she said. "I could have distinguished between a cow and a sheep and I could sometimes tell the difference between a lamb chop and a pork chop, but that was the limit of my experience, and I was determined to keep my ignorance to myself”
Mona Anderson (1909–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We console ourselves, for the most part, with the superiority of our cultivation, which we consider to be qualitatively ‘higher,’... One reveres the uniqueness of Greek Geist, but with closer contact with this Asian world one cannot help raising the suspicion that our feelings of superiority are built on the quicksand of ignorance.”
Carl Heinrich Becker (1876–1933) said by 1933 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Carl Becker, “Von Peking bis Damaskus: Eindrücke von einer Studienreise durch Asien,” quoted in Suzanne L. Marchand - German Orientalism in the Age of Empire. Religion, Race, and Scholarship-Cambridge University Press (…
“Utopia! such is the name with which ignorance, folly, and incredulity have always characterized the great conceptions, discoveries, enterprises, and ideas which have illustrated the ages, and marked eras in human progress.”
Émile de Girardin (1802–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe that the real problem in this world is not climate change. The real problem is us because of our ignorance and apathy. What we have to do is to start changing our ways, to start recalibrating our minds and redirecting our steps because together, as a global community, our micro-efforts will have a macro-effect to help save our home, our planet.”
Karen Ibasco (born 1990) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During the final question and answer portion, the top four contestants were asked by the host James Deakin: "Who or what do you think is the biggest enemy of Mother Earth and why?" She answered: READ: Miss Earth 2017 Ka…
“Biologists have an adolescent fascination with sex. Like teenagers they are embarrassed by the subject because of their ignorance.”
Steve Jones (biologist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education takes its etymology from the Latin word educere... Education is to lead someone out of ignorance.”
Mogobe Ramose wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dance is the fist with which I fight the sickening ignorance of prejudice.”
Pearl Primus (1919–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: #TBT: Pearl Primus on Fighting Ignorance and Prejudice Through Dance 23 June 2021
“The way things are, the secondary cannot take place until the first has taken place, but the first cannot continue in total ignorance of the second”
Nuruddin Farah (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our people do not comprehend writing because they do not understand the value of writing. This ignorance, however, is not their fault”
Nuruddin Farah (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am as much a polluter as the others. The polluter is my neighbour. I am an accomplice. We are complicit in our ignorance”
Pascale Marthine Tayou (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Being present isn’t ignorance of the dream”
Ken Nwadiogbu (born 1994) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Contempt prior to investigation is what enslaves a mind to Ignorance.”
Albert Einstein (misattributed) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: This or similar statements are more often misattributed to Herbert Spencer, but the source of the phrase "contempt prior to investigation" seems to have been William Paley, A View of the Evidences of Christianity (1794)…
“The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. Most people, sometime in their lives, stumble across truth. Most jump up, brush themselves off, and hurry on about their business, as if nothing happened.”
Winston Churchill (disputed) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in, but without a documented source: Joseph Romanella (2012): Adam's Dream: Is Everything We Think, Believe, and Perceive Real—or Is It All Imaginary?, page xxx. ISBN: 978-1-4525-0823-8 (sc). ISBN: 978-1-4525-…
“No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.”
Confucius (misattributed) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Atwood H. Townsend, editor of Good Reading, various editions from at least 1960