Quoted in: A.L. Mackay Dictionary of Scientific Quotations (London 1994).
“A lady once asked him how he came to define 'pastern', the knee of a horse: instead of making an elaborate defence, as might be expected, he at once answered, "Ignorance, Madam, pure ignorance."”
            1755, p. 82 
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I
        
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Samuel Johnson 362
English writer 1709–1784Related quotes
Interview in the Guardian http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/profile/story/0,11109,1092253,00.html
                                        
                                        Johannesburg, South Africa, 29 April 1972 - quoted on p213 of "Who is Guru Maharaj Ji?" published by Bantam, 1973 
1970s
                                    
“He was once asked what a friend is, and his answer was, "One soul abiding in two bodies."”
                                        
                                        Aristotle, 9. 
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 5: The Peripatetics
                                    
                                        
                                        Source: Kavanagh: A Tale (1849), Chapter 13. 
Context: Ah, how wonderful is the advent of spring! — the great annual miracle of the blossoming of Aaron's rod, repeated on myriads and myriads of branches! — the gentle progression and growth of herbs, flowers, trees, — gentle and yet irrepressible, — which no force can stay, no violence restrain, like love, that wins its way and cannot be withstood by any human power, because itself is divine power. If spring came but once in a century, instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake, and not in silence, what wonder and expectation there would be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change! But now the silent succession suggests nothing but necessity. To most men only the cessation of the miracle would be miraculous and the perpetual exercise of God's power seems less wonderful than its withdrawal would be.
                                    
                                
                                    “I speak from ignorance.
Who once learned much, but speaks from ignorance now.”
                                
                                
                                
                                
                            
Poem Last of the Chiefs published in: Nathaniel Tarn (1965) Old savage, young city. p. 18.