“Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession - their ignorance.”

— Hendrik Willem van Loon

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Hendrik Willem van Loon 1

Dutch-American historian, journalist and author 1882–1944

Adrian Mitchell (1932–2008) British writer

Poems (1964), Preface.

“What is gained through ignorance is bound to be lost through ignorance.”

Siddharth Katragadda (1972) Indian writer

page 42
Dark Rooms (2002)

“Our trouble is that we have ignored and thus feel insecure in the enormous spectrum of love which lies between rather formal friendship and genital sexuality, and thus are always afraid that once we overstep the bounds of formal friendship we must slide inevitably to the extreme of sexual promiscuity.”

Alan Watts (1915–1973) British philosopher, writer and speaker

Source: The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness (1962), p. 91

“It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference.”

Helen Keller book Optimism

Optimism (1903)

“Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.”

Herodotus (-484–-425 BC) ancient Greek historian, often considered as the first historian

“The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

Earliest citation to Paine appears to be in "Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Communism Vol. XXIV" https://books.google.com/books?id=ITYfh67DKncC&pg=RA11-PA33&lpg=RA11-PA33&dq=The+trade+of+governing+has+always+been+monopolized+by+the+most+ignorant+and+the+most+rascally+individuals+of+mankind.&source=bl&ots=8DHXw2Ix1C&sig=ACfU3U3Bk_9QoyDZh_LDcoEB83cEaDWTcQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjp3I6MqOXxAhW2KVkFHfEsDb0Q6AEwBXoECBEQAw#v=onepage&q=The%20trade%20of%20governing%20has%20always%20been%20monopolized%20by%20the%20most%20ignorant%20and%20the%20most%20rascally%20individuals%20of%20mankind.&f=false. Not found in any of his works.
Misattributed