
“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
“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
“The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge.”
“Ignorance is a chink in the armor a knowledgeable enemy can exploit at will.”
Source: She Is the Darkness (1997), Chapter 54 (p. 462)
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).
“Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance is the death of knowledge.”
As quoted in Forbidden Knowledge : From Prometheus to Pornography (1996) by Roger Shattuck, p. 177
“Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery”
Source: Miles: The Autobiography