Famous Quotes & Sayings

Jane Yolen

Fish are not the best authority on water.

Jane Smiley

Ignorance is a self-generating state of mind; one of its characteristics is that it doesn't recognize itself as ignorance.

Jane Smiley

Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states.

Anton Chekhov

I am now and have always been a stranger to the realm of practical matters.

Baltasar Gracian

Admiration is the basis of ignorance.

Aung San Suu Kyi

It would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear.

Diana Wynne Jones

I'll show you how," Peter said. "Stop hiding behind your ignorance.

Desiderius Erasmus

By identifying the new learning with heresy, you make orthodoxy synonymous with ignorance.

Dean Koontz

Ignorance isn't bliss, but sometimes ignorance makes it possible for us to sleep at night.

Clarice Lispector

Ignorance of the law of irreducibility was no excuse. I could no longer excuse myself with the claim that I didn't know the law -- for knowledge of self and of the world is the law that, even though unattainable, cannot be broken, and no one can excuse himself by saying that he doesn't know it. . . . The renewed originality of the sin is this: I have to carry out my unknowing, I shall be sinning originally against life.

Bret Easton Ellis

She sits before me, sullen but hopeful, characterless, about to dissolve into tears. I squeeze her hand back, moved, no, touched by her ignorance of evil. She has one more test to pass. Do you own a briefcase?” I ask her, swallowing.

Booker T. Washington

Ignorance is more costly to any State than education.

Booker T. Washington

Never get to the point where you will be ashamed to ask anybody for information. The ignorant man will always be ignorant if he fears that by asking another for information he will display ignorance. Better once display your ignorance of a certain subject than always know nothing of it.

Booker T. Washington

We all should rise, above the clouds of ignorance, narrowness, and selfishness.

Bodhidharma

Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom.

Brigham Young

I have known a great many men who have left this Church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled, it would have been better for them. The wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbid this principle's being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force.

Blaise Pascal

The best defense against logic is ignorance.

Blaise Pascal

Being unable to cure death, wretchedness, and ignorance, men have decided, in order to be happy, not to think about such things.

Blaise Pascal

Extremes are for us as though they were not, and we are not within their notice. They escape us, or we them. This is our true state; this is what makes us incapable of certain knowledge and of absolute ignorance... This is our natural condition, and yet most contrary to our inclination; we burn with desire to find solid ground and an ultimate sure foundation whereon to build a tower reaching to the Infinite. But our whole groundwork cracks, and the earth opens to abysses.

Blaise Pascal

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

Blaise Pascal

If ignorance were bliss, he'd be a blister

Blaise Pascal

The great mass of people judge well of things, for they are in natural ignorance, which is man's true state.

Billy Bob Thornton

I attribute all my success to ignorance. If you don't ever think about not getting where you want to be, I think it helps you out.

Dennis Prager

Given the unprecedented ignorance of the Bible in contemporary America, it is likely that more young Americans will only know the Noah of 'Noah.' We can only hope that the film offers even a fraction of the wisdom of the original.

Deng Xiaoping

Even if they're functioning out of ignorance, they are still participating and must be suppressed. In China, even one million people can be considered a small sum.

Denis Diderot

Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.

Denis Diderot

It seems to me that if one had kept silence up to now regarding religion, people would still be submerged in the most grotesque and dangerous superstition ... regarding government, we would still be groaning under the bonds of feudal government ... regarding morals, we would still be having to learn what is virtue and what is vice. To forbid all these discussions, the only ones worthy of occupying a good mind, is to perpetuate the reign of ignorance and barbarism.

Barack Obama

When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Ignorance is degrading only when found in company with great riches.

Aristophanes

Ignorance can be cured, but stupidity is forever

Elias Hicks

People talk about revelation, and say it has ceased; but what ignorance it bespeaks, when man knows not the least thing on earth without revelation.

Elif Safak

Knowledge that takes you, not beyond yourself is far worse than ignorance.

Eliezer Yudkowsky

A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth. To feel the burning itch of curiosity requires both that you be ignorant, and that you desire to relinquish your ignorance.