Quotes about ignorance
page 8

“That's a horrible plan."
"Yes, but I have chosen to ignore that.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Source: Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art

“When you encounter seemingly good advice that contradicts other seemingly good advice, ignore them both.”

Al Franken (1951) American comedian and politician

Oh, the Things I Know (2002)

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”

Walter Cronkite (1916–2009) American broadcast journalist

“Quoting: "Men know that women are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.”

James Boswell (1740–1795) Scottish lawyer, diarist and author

Source: Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

Women, Men, Quotes, Thinking

“You are the only young man that I know of who ignores the fact that the future becomes the present, the present the past and the past turns into everlasting regret if you don't plan for it!”

Tennessee Williams The Glass Menagerie

Amanda, Scene Five
Source: The Glass Menagerie (1944)

Past, Future

“If the history-deniers who doubt the fact of evolution are ignorant of biology, those who think the world began less than ten thousand years ago are worst than ignorant, they are the deluded to the point of perversity.”

Richard Dawkins book The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

Source: The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution

World, History, Thinking

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Letter to W.T. Barry http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s35.html (4 August 1822), in The Writings of James Madison (1910) edited by Gaillard Hunt, Vol. 9, p. 103; these words, using the older spelling "Governours", are inscribed to the left of the main entrance, Library of Congress James Madison Memorial Building. 1820s Context: A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

People, Knowledge

“The mark of your ignorance is the depth of your belief in injustice and tragedy. What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)

World

“Tweet, tweet, you're alive, you ignorant asshole.”

Richard Ford (1944) American novelist and short story writer

“Those at too great a distance may, I am well aware, mistake ignorance for perspective.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

Introduction (p. 7)
The Dragons of Eden (1977)
Source: Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

“That is like throwing two virgins into a bed. Enthusiasm, passion, and ignorance are not a good combination. Someone is likely to get hurt.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Passion, Hurt

“Justice is the only worship.
Love is the only priest.
Ignorance is the only slavery.
Happiness is the only good.
The time to be happy is now,
The place to be happy is here,
The way to be happy is to make others so.
Wisdom is the science of happiness.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Love, Wisdom, Happiness, Justice

“Even mocking people helped their face stats. In the reputation economy, the only real way to hurt anyone was to ignore them completely. And it was pretty hard to ignore someone who made your blood boil.”

Scott Westerfeld book Extras

Source: Extras

People, Way, Help, Hurt

“You write for the people in high school who ignored you. We all do.”

Carolyn Kizer (1925–2014) American poet

People, School

“Selective ignorance, a cornerstone of child rearing. You don't put kids under surveillance: it might frighten you. Parents should sit tall in the saddle and look upon their troops with a noble and benevolent and extremely nearsighted gaze.”

Garrison Keillor book Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories

Leaving Home‎ (1987), p. 19
Source: Leaving Home: A Collection of Lake Wobegon Stories

Parent

“Syn has a brain disorder that causes him to lie most of the time. Ignore him. (Nykyrian)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

Lie, Time

“Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith! Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge!”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

Source: The Works Of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. Iii

Faith, Knowledge, Tree, Dead

“We cannot ignore our pain and feel compassion for it at the same time.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Pain, Feeling, Time

“The past doesn't matter. People cling to it because it allows them to ignore the present.”

James Frey book The Final Testament of the Holy Bible

Source: The Final Testament of the Holy Bible

People, Past

“To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.”
Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

“Stress is basically a disconnection from the earth, a forgetting of the breath. Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important. Just lie down.”

Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer

Lie, Forgetting

“Sixty years ago I knew everything. Now I know nothing. Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

Quoted in "Books: The Great Gadfly", Time magazine, 8 October 1965 (review of The Age of Voltaire by Will and Ariel Durant)

Education

“A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

Books, World

“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

Charles Darwin book The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

volume I, "Introduction", page 3 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=16&itemID=F937.1&viewtype=image Source: The Descent of Man (1871) Context: It has often and confidently been asserted, that man's origin can never be known: but ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

Confidence, Knowledge, Problem, Science

“… given sufficient ignorance, one can doubt evolution….”

Steven E. Landsburg

The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics and Physics

“[The] truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in the House of Commons, May 17, 1916 "Royal Assent" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1916/may/17/royal-assent#column_1578. Early career years (1898–1929)

Truth

“Memories are nice little possessions. As long as you don't ignore the present when you take them out to play.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Memory

“Fear and realisation of ignorance, strong medicines against stupid pride.”

Garth Nix book Abhorsen

Source: Sabriel

Stupidity, Fear, Strong

“It isn’t possible to love and to part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know from experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.”

E.M. Forster book A Room with a View

Source: A Room with a View (1908), Ch. 19

Love, Parting

“When God ignores you, the devil starts looking good.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Flirt

Source: Flirt

God

“The wrongs done to trees, wrongs of every sort, are done in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief, for when the light comes, the heart of the people is always right.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

about 1900, page 429
John of the Mountains, 1938

People, Tree, Light, Heart

“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.”

Marian Wright Edelman (1939) American children's rights activist

Thinking, Time, Faith

“Stupid people always ignored good advice”

Johanna Lindsey (1952–2019) American writer

Source: All I Need Is You

People, Stupidity

“Ignorance is the parent of fear.”

Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet

Source: Moby-Dick or, The Whale

Fear, Parent

“Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that's no reason not to give it.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

“Difficulties come when you don't pay attention to life's whisper. Life always whispers to you first, but if you ignore the whisper, sooner or later you'll get a scream”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Life

“Pain is a message, and you can choose to ignore that message.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

Pain

“If you focus on sandbagging the beachhead, you can ignore the tsunami that's approaching. Try it any other way and you'll go crazy.”

Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper

Source: My Sister's Keeper

Way

“You think that's the solution to everything, don't you, Bane? Drinking and dancing and making love… but I tell you this, something is coming, and we'd be fools to ignore it."
"When have I ever claimed not to be a fool?”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Rise of the Hotel Dumort

Love, Making love, Fools, Drink

“Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets.”

Arthur C. Clarke book Childhood's End

1950s
Source: Childhood's End (1953), p. 15
Context: Science can destroy religion by ignoring it as well as by disproving its tenets. No one ever demonstrated, so far as I am aware, the non-existence of Zeus or Thor — but they have few followers now.

Religion, Science

“I've found you can ignore half of what Dox tells you and not miss much-except for maybe they occasional complaint that you're spending too much.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

“Most guys will fight to know you. Some guys will deny you're a real person, and some will just ignore you."
The zealot. The atheist. The agnostic.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Source: Invisible Monsters

Guy, Fight, Personality

“Men know that women are an overmatch for them, and therefore they choose the weakest or the most ignorant. If they did not think so, they never could be afraid of women knowing as much as themselves.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

Source: A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland and The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

Women, Men, Thinking

“Witchcraft to the ignorant,…. Simple science to the learned.”

Leigh Brackett (1915–1978) American novelist and screenwriter

Learning, Science

“People want to ignore what they can't understand. They're looking for logic at any cost.”

Alice Hoffman book Practical Magic

Source: Practical Magic

People, Understanding

“I'll show you how," Peter said. "Stop hiding behind your ignorance.”

Diana Wynne Jones House of Many Ways

Source: House of Many Ways

“The thrill of being ignored!”

Markus Zusak book The Book Thief

Source: The Book Thief

“When you combine ignorance and leverage, you get some pretty interesting results.”

Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist

“Modern morality and manners suppress all natural instincts, keep people ignorant of the facts of nature and make them fighting drunk on bogey tales.”

Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist

Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography
Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1929), Ch. 57.
Context: Modern morality and manners suppress all natural instincts, keep people ignorant of the facts of nature and make them fighting drunk on bogey tales. … Knowing nothing and fearing everything, they rant and rave and riot like so many maniacs. The subject does not matter. Any idea which gives them an excuse of getting excited will serve. They look for a victim to chivy, and howl him down, and finally lynch him in a sheer storm of sexual frenzy which they honestly imagine to be moral indignation, patriotic passion or some equally avowable emotion. It may be an innocent Negro, a Jew like Leo Frank, a harmless half-witted German; a Christ-like idealist of the type of Debs, an enthusiastic reformer like Emma Goldman or even a doctor whose views displease the Medial Trust.

People, Nature, Fight

“You can know a thing to death and be for all purposes completely ignorant of it. A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Love, Death, Loyalty

“To be truly ignorant, be content with your own knowledge.”

Zhuangzi (-369–-286 BC) classic Chinese philosopher

Knowledge

“It is our ignorance of things that causes all our admiration and chiefly excites our passions.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Source: A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

Passion

“Most people who travel look only at what they are directed to look at. Great is the power of the guidebook maker, however ignorant.”

John Muir book Travels in Alaska

Source: Travels in Alaska

People, Travel

“We have a talent for disguising greed under the cloak of freedom. As for past acts of depravity, we prefer to ignore those. Progress, after all, means to look ever forward, and whatever we have trampled in our wake is best forgotten.”

Steven Erikson book Midnight Tides

Source: Midnight Tides

Freedom, Past

“Violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children: organized religion ought to have a great deal on its conscience.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Source: god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Women, Hostility, Children, Religion

“… Writings can be stolen, or changed, or used for evil purposes. But isn't the risk worth taking? The more people who share knowledge, the greater safeguard for it. Isn't there more danger in ignorance than knowledge?”

Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American children's writer

Source: The Arkadians

People, Knowledge, Evil, Change

“MAN: Kick him-he'll forgive you. Flatter him-he may or may not see through you. But ignore him and he'll hate you”

Idries Shah (1924–1996) writer and Sufi teacher

Hate, Forgiveness

“Man," I cried, "how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!”

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus

Source: Frankenstein

Wisdom, Art

“Education is the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the ignorant by the incompetent.”

John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) British economist

From hearer's memory in Jewish Frontier, vol. 29 http://books.google.com/books?id=NmYeAAAAMAAJ&q=keynes+%22inculcation+of+the+incomprehensible+into+the+ignorant+by+the+incompetent%22&dq=keynes+%22inculcation+of+the+incomprehensible+into+the+ignorant+by+the+incompetent (1962). Alternate version: Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent. As quoted in Infinite Riches: Gems from a Lifetime of Reading (1979) by Leo Calvin Rosten, p. 165 Attributed

Education

“They say ignorance is bliss…. they're wrong”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“You're an enemy of art and I pity your ignorance," Domingo said.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Art

“Pretty girls behave best when you ignore them. Of course, they have to know you are ignoring them, for otherwise they may not even know you exist.”

Chetan Bhagat book 2 States: The Story of My Marriage

Source: 2 States: The Story of My Marriage

Girl

“With a shiver of foreboding he saw his marriage becoming what most of the other marriages about him were: a dull association of material and social interests held together by ignorance on the one side and hypocrisy on the other.”

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence

Source: The Age of Innocence

Marriage

“Not knowing a thing is not ignorance. Feigning knowledge you don't have can be--Sholto”

Laurell K. Hamilton A Kiss of Shadows

Source: A Kiss of Shadows

Knowledge

“Loss is the hardest thing, I said. But it's also the teacher that's the most difficult to ignore.”

Dean Koontz book Odd Hours

Source: Odd Hours

Teachers, Loss

“She could not ignore life. She had to live it and it was too brutal, too hostile, for her even to try to gloss over its harshness with a smile.”

Margaret Mitchell book Vom Winde verweht (1937 German edition)

Source: Gone with the Wind

Life, Hostility, Smile

“Like most of the educated, I do harbor a fondness for the sins of my ignorant past.”

Jane Smiley (1949) American novelist

Education, Past

“Where ignorance lurks, so too do the frontiers of discovery and imagination”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

Imagination

“Don't punish yourselves for people's ignorant reactions to what we all are. Don't let ignorance win. Let love.”

Nancy Garden book Annie on My Mind

Source: Annie on My Mind

Love, People

“Maybe if I didn't say anything about what happened, we could get back to the way we were. Ignoring a problem was a perfectly acceptable way to deal with it, as long as both people agree never to bring it up again.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Source: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

People, Way, Problem

“Children's talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.”

Maya Angelou book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Ch. 17. ISBN 978-0-375-50789-2

Children

“Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.”

Guy Debord (1931–1994) French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker and founding member of the Situationist International (SI)

Vol. 1, pt. 1.
Panegyric (1989)
Source: Society of the Spectacle

“She loved with so much passion as she loved with ignorance. She did not know whether it were good or evil, beneficent or dangerous, necessary or accidental, eternal or transitory, permitted or prohibited: she loved.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Love, Passion, Evil

“Everyone says that I have no sense of humor, then I construct a perfectly sound pun around a well-known psychological condition, and it is ignored.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Lost Colony

Sense

“Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.”

Robert J. Sawyer book Calculating God

Source: Calculating God (2000), Chapter 14 (p. 137)

Peace, Learning, Beauty, Peaceful

“It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”

James Baldwin book No Name in the Street

No Name in the Street (1972)
Context: Well, if one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected — those, precisely, who need the law's protection most! — and listens to their testimony. Ask any Mexican, any Puerto Rican, any black man, any poor person — ask the wretched how they fare in the halls of justice, and then you will know, not whether or not the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it. It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

Justice