The Discoverers: A History of Man's Search to Know His World and Himself, Random House, 1983, p. 86.
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.”
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).
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge.”
Sometimes attributed to Hawking without a source, but originally from historian Daniel J. Boorstin. It appears in different forms in The Discoverers (1983), Cleopatra's Nose (1995), and introduction to The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1995)
Misattributed
Source: Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1968), "Philosophy as a Revolutionary Weapon", p. 4
“Our knowledge is a little island in a great ocean of nonknowledge.”
The New York Times (3 December 1978)
“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.”
Compare: It’s a point so blindingly obvious that only an extraordinarily clever and sophisticated person could fail to grasp it.
John Bercow, 2016.
General sources
Variant: There is no limit to the amount of intelligence invested in ignorance when the need for illusion runs deep.
Source: To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account (1976), p. 127
“To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.”
Book 1, chapter 5.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Sybil (1845)
Variant: To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
“We cannot overcome obstacles with ignorance.”
Source: Full House (1996), Chapter 4, “Case One: A Personal Story” (p. 46)
