Daniel J. Boorstin: Illusion

Daniel J. Boorstin was American historian. Explore interesting quotes on illusion.
Daniel J. Boorstin: 78 quotes4 likes

“We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions.”

Daniel J. Boorstin

Preface
The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961)
Context: We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in their place.

“We must first awake before we can walk in the right direction. We must discover our illusions before we can even realize that we have been sleepwalking. The least and the most we can hope for is that each of us may penetrate the unknown jungle of images in which we live our daily lives. That we may discover anew where dreams end and where illusions begin. This is enough. Then we may know where we are, and each of us may decide for himself where he wants to go.”

Daniel J. Boorstin

Source: The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961), p. 261.

“Pseudo‑events do, of course, increase our illusion of grasp on the world, what some have called the American illusion of omnipotence. Perhaps, we come to think, the world’s problems can really be settled by “statements,” by “Summit” meetings, by a competition of “prestige,” by overshadowing images, and by political quiz shows.”

Daniel J. Boorstin

Source: The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1961), p. 44.

“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

This "aphorism" was expressed in different forms by Josh Billings and Socrates. note: Often misquoted as, "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge," and often misattributed to Stephen Hawking.
Source: Cleopatra's Nose: Essays on the Unexpected (1995).

“Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was that philosophers would be lulled into complacence by the accidental rise of a Franklin or a Washington. Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.”

Daniel J. Boorstin

Source: The Lost World of Thomas Jefferson (1948), Ch. 4, Part 1: Natural History and Political Science, p. 178.

“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 book The Discoverers

The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself, Random House, 1983, p. 86.