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. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Knowledge
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“Isn’t science, as some maintain, based on a “faith” that it’s good to pursue the truth? Hardly. The notion that knowledge is better than ignorance is not a quasi-religious faith, but a preference: we prefer to know the truth because accepting what’s false doesn’t give us useful answers about the universe.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Buddha appeared on earth to dispel by the illumination of knowledge the ignorance that had enveloped the human mass, to release the human soul from the prison-cell of desire into the wideness of the silence and peace of Nirvana.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To teach pride in knowledge is to put up an effective barrier against any advance upon what is already known, since it makes one ashamed to look beyond the bounds imposed by one's own ignorance.”
G. Spencer-Brown (1923–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where knowledge is a duty, ignorance is a crime.”
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Public Good (Philadelphia: John Dunlap, 1780)
“For I say this is death and the sole death,— When a man's loss comes to him from his gain, Darkness from light, from knowledge ignorance, And lack of love from love made manifest.”
Robert Browning (1812–1889) said by 1889 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance of each other is what has made unity impossible in the past. Therefore we need enlightenment. We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity. Once we have more knowledge (light) about each other, we will stop condemning each other and a United front will be brought about.”
Malcolm X (1925–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Malcolm X: The Man and his Times, edited by John Henrik Clarke and published by Africa World Press in 1990, p. 304
“When the real nature of things becomes clear to the meditating Bikshu, then all his doubts fade away since he has learned what is that nature and what it's cause. From ignorance spring all the evils. From knowledge comes the cessation of this mass of misery, and then the meditating Brahmana stands dispelling the hosts of Mara like the sun that illuminates the sky.”
Gautama Buddha (501–501 BC) said by 501 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mahavagga 1st Khandhaka, as translated/quoted by Koot Hoomi, in The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, Letter No. X, (1923), Letter No. X, 1881
“Our ignorance can be divided into problems and mysteries. When we face a problem, we may not know its solution, but we have insight, increasing knowledge, and an inkling of what we are looking for. When we face a mystery, however, we can only stare in wonder and bewilderment, not knowing what an explanation would even look like.”
Noam Chomsky (born 1928) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground has, as its necessary condition, self-abnegation and charity. Only by means of self-abnegation and charity can we clear away the evil, folly and ignorance which constitute the thing we call our personality and prevent us from becoming aware of the spark of divinity illuminating the inner man.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”
Socrates (470–399 BC) said by 399 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Poverty, ignorance, illness and other problems of that kind are not metaphysical emergencies. By the metaphysical nature of man and of existence, man has to maintain his life by his own effort; the values he needs—such as wealth or knowledge—are not given to him automatically, as a gift of nature, but have to be discovered and achieved by his own thinking and work.”
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Self-knowledge can be painful, but not half so damaging as self-ignorance.”
Orson Scott Card (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God is by definition the holder of all possible knowledge, it would be impossible for him to have faith in anything. Faith, then, is built upon ignorance and hope.”
Steve Allen (1921–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge might not be power, but ignorance was definitely weakness, and so was poverty.”
Lois McMaster Bujold (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The great obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge.”
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself (1983), p. 86
“The history of Western science confirms the aphorism that the great menace to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.”
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cleopatra's Nose: Essays on the Unexpected (1995). This "aphorism" was expressed in different forms by Josh Billings and Socrates.
“The hordes of words that fill our books proclaim our ignorance, reveal the obscurities that flood our knowledge. If we were perfectly enlightened, our moral books would contain only maxims and our books on physics and spirituality would contain only axioms and facts. Everything else is clutter and shows no more than our gropings, our efforts, and our difficulties.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To know the mighty works of God, to comprehend His wisdom and majesty and power; to appreciate, in degree, the wonderful workings of His laws, surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable mode of worship to the Most High, to whom ignorance cannot be more grateful than knowledge.”
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) said by 1543 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Poland : The Knight Among Nations (1907) by Louis E. Van Norman, p. 290; also in The Language of God (2006) by Francis Collins, pp. 230-31
“Imaginary causes have gradually receded with the widening bounds of knowledge and disappear entirely before sound philosophy, which sees in them only the expression of our ignorance of the true causes.”
Pierre-Simon Laplace (1749–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up all the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge.”
Horace Mann (1796–1859) said by 1859 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People are supposed to fear the unknown, but ignorance is bliss when the knowledge is so damn frightening.”
Laurell K. Hamilton (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Can Hell and Heaven be merely the difference between ignorance and knowledge?”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Meditate upon the Knowledge and Bliss Eternal, and you will also have bliss. The Bliss indeed is eternal, only it is covered and obscured by ignorance. The less your attachment is towards the senses, the more will be your love towards God.”
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Hindu Psychology : Its Meaning for the West (1946) by Swami Akhilananda, p. 204
“Knowledge leads to unity, and Ignorance to diversity.”
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When an unbaked pot is broken, the potter can use the mud to make a new one; but when a baked one is broken, he cannot do the same any longer. So when a person dies in a state of ignorance, he is born again; but when he becomes well baked in the fire of true knowledge and dies a perfect man, he is not born again. (46)”
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) said by 1886 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The man who realizes his ignorance has taken the first step toward knowledge.”
Max Heindel (1865–1919) first seen 1909 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (1909) Introduction
“We venture to make the assertion that there is but one sin: IGNORANCE, and but one salvation: APPLIED KNOWLEDGE.”
Max Heindel (1865–1919) first seen 1911 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Rosicrucian Mysteries (1911)
“He knew nothing accurately about any subject in the world, but he could clothe his ignorance in pontifical garments and give his confusion the accents of authority. He had a remarkable flair for discerning and elaborating the tiny quantum of popular knowledge on any matter.”
John Buchan (1875–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If man puts his honor first in relying upon himself, knowing himself and applying himself, this in self-reliance, self-assertion, and freedom, he then strives to rid himself of the ignorance which makes a strange impenetrable object a barrier and a hindrance to his self-knowledge.”
Max Stirner (1806–1856) said by 1856 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He that is not aware of his ignorance, will be only misled by his knowledge.”
Richard Whately (1787–1863) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Thoughts and Apophthegms from the Writings of Archbishop Whately (1856), p. 164
“Nostalgia for what we have lost is more bearable than nostalgia for what we have never had, for the first involves knowledge and pleasure, the second only ignorance and pain.”
Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not Wisdom, but Ignorance, which teaches men presumption; Genius may be sometimes arrogant, but nothing is so diffident as Knowledge.”
Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873) said by 1873 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whoever interrupts the conversation of others to make a display of his own fund of knowledge, makes notorious his own stock of ignorance.”
Saadi (1210–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 8, story 96. Tr. James Ross (1823) p. 461
“Religious moderation is the product of secular knowledge and scriptural ignorance.”
Sam Harris (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil, namely, ignorance.”
Diogenes Laërtius wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: Tertullian
“Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of ignorance.”
Robert Quillen (1887–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in The School Day Begins : A Guide to Opening Exercises, Grades Kindergarten - 12 (1967) by Agnes Krarup
“We know that God is He whom we do not know, and that our ignorance is precisely the problem and the source of our knowledge. The Epistle to the Romans is a revelation of the unknown God; God chooses to come to man, not man to God. Even after the revelation man cannot know God, for he is ever the unknown God. In manifesting himself to man he is farther away than before.”
Karl Barth (1886–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Recognition is famously a passage from ignorance to knowledge.”
Amitav Ghosh (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unfortunately there was one thing that the white South feared more than Negro dishonesty, ignorance, and incompetency, and that was Negro honesty, knowledge, and efficiency.”
W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just as feelings grow out of ignorance, intuition should grow out of knowledge.”
Eugene J. Martin (1938–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the ignorance of nature gave birth to such a variety of gods, the knowledge of this nature is calculated to destroy them.”
Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789) first seen 1770 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Date and place of publication unknown. Original publication in French, 1770, as La Système de la nature, under the name of Jean Baptiste de Mirabaud.
“Now, if the ignorance of nature gave birth to Gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them.”
Baron d'Holbach (1723–1789) said by 1789 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are in fact four very significant stumbling blocks in the way of grasping the truth, which hinder every man however learned, and scarcely allow anyone to win a clear title to wisdom, namely, the example of weak and unworthy authority, longstanding custom, the feeling of the ignorant crowd, and the hiding of our own ignorance while making a display of our apparent knowledge.”
Roger Bacon (1220–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cited in: John H. Woodburn, Ellsworth Scott Obourn (1965) Teaching the pursuit of science. p. 70
“Mathematics is the gate and key of the sciences. ... Neglect of mathematics works injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or the things of this world. And what is worse, men who are thus Ignorant are unable to perceive their own ignorance and so do not seek a remedy.”
Roger Bacon (1220–1292) said by 1292 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: cited in: Morris Kline (1969) Mathematics and the physical world. p. 1
“On Omega, the law was kept secret. Older residents used their knowledge of the law to enforce their rule over the newcomers. This system was condoned and reinforced by the doctrine of the inequality of all men, which lay at the heart of the Omegan legal system. Through planned inequality and enforced ignorance, power and status remained in the hands of the older residents.”
Robert Sheckley (1928–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The essence of scientific progress is to edge up this ladder from ignorance to knowledge, and it is complicated by the fact that the ladder keeps getting longer!”
George Stigler (1911–1991) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 4th ed. (1987), Chap. 1 : Introduction to Economic Analysis
“It was however only in the nineteenth century that men began to glory in their ignorance–for to proclaim oneself an agnostic means nothing else–and claimed to deny to others any knowledge to which they had no access themselves; and this marked yet one more stage in the intellectual decline of the West.”
René Guénon (1886–1951) said by 1951 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Atman, the Sun of Knowledge that rises in the sky of the heart, destroys the darkness of the ignorance, pervades and sustains all and shines and makes everything to shine.”
Adi Shankara (788–820) said by 820 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I insist that my positive knowledge, however small, is not to be set aside for the gentleman's ignorance, however great.”
Leonard Bacon (1802–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported in Friends' Intelligencer and Journal (1898) Volume 55, p. 210. No earlier source for this quotation is given, or has otherwise been identified. Several variants are found elsewhere, e.g., ""I cannot allow my o…
“Yoga ferried me across the great river from the bank of ignorance to the shore of knowledge and wisdom.”
B. K. S. Iyengar (1918–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source