“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.”
Optimism (1903)
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Helen Keller156
American author and political activist 1880–1968Related quotes
“Stupid people always ignored good advice”
Johanna Lindsey (1952–2019) American writer
Source: All I Need Is You
“the greatest danger is always the one we are ignorant of.”
Robin Hobb book Fool's Fate
Source: Fool's Fate
“C++ is a language strongly optimized for liars and people who go by guesswork and ignorance.”
Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer
Re: is CLOS reall OO? http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/917737b7cc8510e3 (Usenet article). <br class="br">Usenet articles, C++
“The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance.”
Herodotus (-484–-425 BC) ancient Greek historian, often considered as the first historian
The words of Socrates, as quoted by Diogenes Laertius.
Misattributed
Albert Camus book The Plague
The Plague (1947)
Context: The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance which fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. There can be no true goodness, nor true love, without the utmost clear-sightedness.
“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.”
Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher
Socrates II: xxxi http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=D.+L.+2.5.31&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0257#note-link14. Original Greek: ἓν μόνον ἀγαθὸν εἶναι, τὴν ἐπιστήμην, καὶ ἓν μόνον κακόν, τὴν ἀμαθίαν <br class="br">Diogenes Laertius <br class="br">Variant: The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
“Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.”
Adrian Mitchell (1932–2008) British writer
Poems (1964), Preface.