“I honestly beleave it iz better tew know nothing than two know what ain't so.”
" Sollum Thoughts http://books.google.com/books?id=7rA8AAAAYAAJ&q=%22tew+know+nothing%22#v=snippet&q=%22tew%20know%20nothing%22&f=false". in Everybody's Friend: Josh Billing's Encyclopedia & Proverbial Philosophy of Wit & Humor (1874)
Variant:
I honestly believe it is better to know nothing than to know what ain't so.
Variant: I honestly believe it is better to know nothing than to know what ain't so.
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Josh Billings 91
American humorist 1818–1885Related quotes
“It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.”
Satius est supervacua scire quam nihil.
Source: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter LXXXVIII: On liberal and vocational studies, Line 45.
“It is better of course to know useless things than to know nothing.”
Misattributed
Source: Seneca, Epistle 88, as seen in the following: "You may sweep all these theories in with the superfluous troops of 'liberal' studies; the one class of men give me a knowledge that will be of no use to me, the other class do away with any hope of attaining knowledge. It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing. One set of philosophers offers no light by which I may direct my gaze toward the truth; the other digs out my very eyes and leaves me blind." Seneca: Epistle 88 http://www.stoics.com/seneca_epistles_book_2.html#%E2%80%98LXXXVIII1
“Whoever wants to love is better knowing nothing than too much.”
Source: Lumina and New Lumina (1969), p. 20
Letter to Sir William Spring (September 1643)
“What is better than wisdom? Woman. And what is better than a good woman? Nothing.”