All I know about humor is that I don’t know anything about it.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Humorist, Radio Personality
The sage awakes to light in the night of all creatures. That which the world calls day is the night of ignorance to the wise.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
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
The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) French Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) English Naturalist
A wise man in the company of those who are ignorant, has been compared to a beautiful girl in the company of blind men.
—Sa’Di (Musharrif Od-Din Muslih Od-Din) (c.1213–91) Persian Poet
Your ignorance cramps my conversation.
—Anthony Hope (1863–1933) English Novelist, Playwright
Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
A man profits more by the sight of an idiot than by the orations of the learned.
—Arabic Proverb
Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.
—Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British Philosopher, Economist
Naivete in grownups is often charming; but when coupled with vanity it is indistinguishable from stupidity.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
Nothing is so dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is worth more.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
I would prefer as a friend a good man who is ignorant than one more clever who is evil, too.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modem world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
Great things are accomplished by those who do not feel the impotence of man. This … is a precious gift.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
The reason there’s so much ignorance is that those who have it are so eager to share it.
—Frank A. Clark
To write a good love letter you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say, and to finish without knowing what you have written.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
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
As electricity is a great power in the world, so the inner mind is the greatest power available to you. Neither operates independently; both depend upon a separate agency to ignite them to action, and both bring helpful or harmful results according to the wisdom or ignorance with which they are directed.
—Roger McDonald (b.1941) Australian Novelist, Poet, Screenwriter, Writer
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
Ignorance is like a delicate fruit; touch it, and the bloom is gone.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
Mystery is but another name for our ignorance; if we were omniscient, all would be perfectly plain.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
The ignorance that knows itself, and judges and condemns itself, is not an absolute ignorance; which to be, it must be ignorant of itself.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know.
—Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American Historian, Academic, Attorney, Writer
Dare to be naive.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
I would rather have my ignorance than another man’s knowledge, because I have so much of it.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
The most violent element in society is ignorance.
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Lithuanian-American Anarchist, Feminist