ignorance quotes

I think that man has a fundamental obligation to extract from himself and from the earth all that it can give; and this obligation is all the more imperative that we are absolutely ignorant of what limits – they may still be very distant – God has imposed on our natural understanding and power.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

He was distinguished for ignorance; for he had only one idea, and that was wrong.

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

I never had that feeling that I had to carry the weight of somebody’s ignorance around with me. And that was true for racists who wanted to use the ‚n‘ word when talking about me or about my people, or the stupidity of people who really wanted to belittle other folks because they weren’t pretty or they weren’t rich or they weren’t clever.

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.

Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.

I say there is no darkness but ignorance.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong.

Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.

Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don’t know and I don’t care.

Practical politics consists in ignoring facts.

He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.

I could do nothing but Brooklyn shows for the rest of my career, and I could die ignorant.

Paranoia is just another word for ignorance.

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

The first magic of love is our ignorance that it can ever end.

Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.

We’re all caught up in circumstances, and we’re all good and evil. When you’re really hungry, for instance, you’ll do anything to survive. I think the most evil thing – well, maybe that’s too strong – but certainly a very evil thing is judgment, the sin of ignorance.

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

Men blaspheme what they do not know.

When ignorance gets started it knows no bounds.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

I wash my hands of those who imagine chattering to be knowledge, silence to be ignorance, and affection to be art.

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.

The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one’s self.

The consciousness of the falsity of present pleasures, and the ignorance of the vanity of absent pleasures, cause inconstancy.

America is becoming so educated that ignorance will be a novelty. I will belong to the select few.

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.

The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don’t know anything about.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

The fifth freedom is freedom from ignorance.

Knowledge slowly builds up what Ignorance in an hour pulls down.

To know anything well involves a profound sensation of ignorance.

I have never sat down and studied the Bible, never consciously echoed its language, and am, in reality, as ignorant of it as most brought-up Christians. All of the Bible that I use in my work is remembered from childhood and is the common property of all who were brought up in English-speaking communities.

To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.

Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.

Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.

The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds.

All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that’s an alibi for my ignorance.

It is in the admission of ignorance and the admission of uncertainty that there is a hope for the continuous motion of human beings in some direction that doesn’t get confined, permanently blocked, as it has so many times before in various periods in the history of man.

As men are not able to fight against death, misery, ignorance, they have taken it into their heads, in order to be happy, not to think of them at all.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

Ignorance of all things is an evil neither terrible nor excessive, nor yet the greatest of all; but great cleverness and much learning, if they be accompanied by a bad training, are a much greater misfortune.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.