“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.”
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American historian
Source: Genome: the Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.”
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American historian
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Source: The Spiritual Life (1947), p. 304
Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer
Referring to her teenage diary, in an interview in Movie magazine (July 1983)
“True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.”
Karl Popper (1902–1994) Austrian-British philosopher of science
As quoted by Mark Damazer in "In Our Time's Greatest Philosopher Vote" at In Our Time (BBC 4) http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/greatest_philosopher_celeb.shtml
Ernestine Rose (1810–1892) American feminist activist
1881, A Defence of Atheism: A lecture delivered in Mercantile Hall, Boston on 10 April, 1861, p. 7
A Defence of Atheism
“True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher
As quoted in Hindu Psychology : Its Meaning for the West (1946) by Swami Akhilananda, p. 204
“The most remarkable discovery made by scientists is science itself.”
Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) Polish-born British mathematician
Source: The Creative Process, 1958, p. 97 Partly cited in: Daniel C. Schlenof. " 50 Years Ago: Greatest Scientific Discovery is Science Itself http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/50-100-150-scientific-creativity/," in Scientific American, Aug. 18, 2008. <br class="br">Context: The most remarkable discovery made by scientists is science itself. The discovery must be compared in importance with the invention of cave-painting and of writing. Like these earlier human creations, science is an attempt to control our surroundings by entering into them and understanding them from inside. And like them, science has surely made a critical step in human development which cannot be reversed. We cannot conceive a future society without science. I have used three words to describe these far - reaching changes : discovery, invention and creation. There are contexts in which one of these words is more appropriate than the others.