Ignorance is an enemy, even to its owner. Knowledge is a friend, even to its hater. Ignorance hates knowledge because it is too pure. Knowledge fears ignorance because it is too sure.
—Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) Indian Yoga Teacher
To become educated is to move from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty.
—Unknown
The trouble with people is not that they don’t know but that they know so much that ain’t so.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
Ignorance lies at the bottom of all human knowledge, and the deeper we penetrate the nearer we come to it.—For what do we truly know, or what can we clearly affirm of any one of those important things upon which all our reasonings must of necessity be built—time and space, life and death, matter and mind.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Most ignorance is vincible ignorance.We don’t know because we don’t want to know.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Satirist, Short Story Writer
Nothing is so indicative of deepest culture as a tender consideration of the ignorant.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney
Better be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of misfortune.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
To succeed in life, you need two things: ignorance and confidence.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Ignorance is bold and knowledge reserved.
—Thucydides (c.455?c.400 BCE) Greek Historian
Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
All I know about humor is that I don’t know anything about it.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Comedian, Radio Personality
If thou art wise thou knowest thine own ignorance; and thou art ignorant if thou knowest not thyself.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
To be proud of learning is the greatest ignorance.
—Jeremy Taylor
It may sound paradoxical, but I’m quite sure that hate and ignorance are the father and mother of enlightenment.
—Hans Taeger
We cannot be saved until we have risen above all our enemies, not the least of which is ignorance.
—Joseph F. Smith (1838–1918) American Religious Leader
When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.
—Warren Buffett (b.1930) American Investor
Your ignorance cramps my conversation.
—Anthony Hope (1863–1933) English Novelist, Playwright
Ignorance is not privileged by titular degrees
—Latin Proverb
Ignorance is not innocence but sin.
—Robert Browning (1812–89) English Poet
To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.
—Isaac Asimov (1920–92) Russian-born American Writer, Scientist
Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
His ignorance covers the world like a blanket, and there’s scarcely a hole in it anywhere
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The greatest pride, or the greatest despondency, is the greatest ignorance of one’s self.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge.
—Horace Mann (1796–1859) American Educator, Politician, Educationalist
If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more happy people?
—Unknown
Ignorance is not so damnable as humbug, but when it prescribes pills it may happen to do more harm.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do.
—John Holt (1923–85) American Educator, Homeschooling Pioneer
It is not wisdom but ignorance that teaches men presumption.—Genius may sometimes be arrogant, but nothing is so diffident as knowledge.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Leave a Reply