
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)
“The ignorant are a reservoir of daring.”
Section 124
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
Context: The ignorant are a reservoir of daring. It almost seems that those who have yet to discover the known are particularly equipped for dealing with the unknown. The unlearned have often rushed in where the learned feared to tread, and it is the credulous who are tempted to attempt the impossible. They know not whither they are going, and give chance a chance.
“Everyone is ignorant, only on different subjects.”
Nationally syndicated column number 90, From Nuts To The Soup (31 August 1924); published in The New York Times http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50A12F83D551B7A93C3AA1783D85F408285F9
Weekly columns
Variant: Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.
“Enthusiasm spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment.”
The Story of Australia's People: The Rise and Rise of a New Australia (2016)
“Are you prepared to be ridiculed, ignored and starving till you are forty-five?”
Wellsprings : A Book of Spiritual Exercises (1985), p. 19
Context: "I wish to become a teacher of the Truth."
"Are you prepared to be ridiculed, ignored and starving till you are forty-five?"
"I am. But tell me: What will happen after I am forty-five?"
"You will have grown accustomed to it."
As quoted in What Great Men Think of Religion (1972 [1945]) by Ira D. Cardiff, p. 245. Actually said by Edward Gibbonː "The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful." (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1776, Vol. I, Ch. II).
Misattributed
Letter to A.W.M. Baillie (10 September 1864)
Letters, etc