“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.”
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American historian
“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.
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American historian 1914–2004Related quotes
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American historian
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.”
Daniel J. Boorstin (1914–2004) American historian
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance. It is the illusion of knowledge.”
Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author
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
Louis Althusser book Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays
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.”
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991) Polish-born Jewish-American author
The New York Times (3 December 1978)
“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.”
Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer
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.”
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Book 1, chapter 5.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Sybil (1845)
Variant: To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer
“We cannot overcome obstacles with ignorance.”
Stephen Jay Gould (1941–2002) American evolutionary biologist
Source: Full House (1996), Chapter 4, “Case One: A Personal Story” (p. 46)