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Ignorance
lack of knowledge or understanding

Ignorance is the condition of being uninformed or uneducated; i.e., lacking

knowledge or information.

Ignorance is degrading only when found in company with riches. The poor man is restrained by
poverty and need: labour occupies his thoughts, and takes the place of knowledge. But rich men who
are ignorant live for their lusts only, and are like the beasts of the field, as may be seen every day; and
they can also be reproached for not having used wealth and leisure for that which gives them their
greatest value. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and
never will be. ~ Thomas Jefferson

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Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations · See also · External links

Quotes

Any wise enemy is better than an ignorant friend.

Traditional Arabic proverb

Quoted in Carol Bardenstein, Translation and Transformation in Modern Arabic

Literature: The Indigenous Assertions of Muḥammad 'Uthmān Jalāl (http://books.
google.co.uk/books?id=o3uNjnpVSMYC&pg=PA66#v=onepage&q&f=false) , Otto
Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005, p. 66.
Be ignorance thy choice, where knowledge leads to woe.
James Beattie, The Minstrel (1771), Book II, Stanza 30.
A large segment of the American public is sadly deficient in its knowledge of
basic business and economic facts of life. The media, which many people say are
their primary sources of their business and economic info, do not appear to be
making any significant impact on this ignorance.
Frank Bennack, Jr., CEO of Hearst Corporation in 1984 (source: No Comment!.
p. 59. ISBN 0275928209.).
It’s amazing how self-perpetuating ignorance is.
Algis Budrys, Hard Landing (1993), p. 61
For "ignorance is the mother of devotion," as all the world knows.
Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), Part III, Section IV. Memb. 1.
Subsect. 2. Phrase used by Dr. Cole, Disputation with the Papists at Westminster,
March 31, 1559. Quoted from Cole by Bishop Jewel, Works, Volume III, Part II, p.
1202. Quoted as a "Popish maxim" by Thomas Vincent, Explicatory Catechism,
Epistle to the Reader (c. 1622). Said by Jeremy Taylor, To a person newly
 converted to the Church of England (1657). Same found in New Custome. I. I. A
Morality printed 1573. (True devotion).
The truest characters of ignorance
Are vanity, and pride, and annoyance.
Samuel Butler, Hudibras (1663-1664).
Man is arrogant in proportion to his ignorance.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni (1842), Book IV, Ch. 4

That there should one Man die ignorant who had capacity for Knowledge, this I
call a tragedy.
Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus, Bk. III, ch. 4.

A truly refined mind will seem to be ignorant of the existence of anything that is
not perfectly proper, placid, and pleasant.
Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, Ch. 5 - Something Wrong Somewhere (1855-1857).
To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.
Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil: Or, The Two Nations (1845), p. 36.
Mr. Kremlin himself was distinguished for ignorance, for he had only one idea, and
that was wrong.
Benjamin Disraeli, Sybil: Or, The Two Nations (1845), Book IV, Chapter V.
Ignorance never settles a question.
Benjamin Disraeli, speech, House of Commons (May 14, 1866).
In Western society... [t]here are no more continents... little left to discover. I am, in
part, an ant biologist... and I knew that much of the world of insects remains
unknown. ...How ignorant are we? The question of what we know and do not know
clung to me. ...In looking into the stories of biological discovery, I... began to find...
a collection of scientists, often obsessive, usually brilliant, occasionally half-
mad... Those individuals very often see the same things that other scientists see,
but they pay more attention... and they focus on them to the point of exhaustion,
and at the risk of the ridicule of their peers. ...[W]e are, before these discoveries,
always more ignorant than we imagine ourselves to be. ...[W]e are repeatedly
willing to imagine we have found most of what is left to discover. Before microbes
were discovered, scientists were confident that insects were the smallest
organisms. Before life was discovered at the bottom of the ocean, many scientists
were confident that nothing lived deeper than three hundred fathoms. Once we
made a tree of life that included four kingdoms (animals, plants, fungi, and
prokaryotes), we were confident that there would be no more major branches to
reveal. ...We are again at a stage when we believe we have found most of what
might be found, but we are wrong. ...[W]hole realms of life remain to be found.
...And even before a new realm or kind of life is found, we still have to explore the
realms we have already discovered. Most species on Earth are not yet named.
Most named species have not yet been studied. When we lived in small
communities, hunting and gathering, we knew only the animals and plants around
us, particularly those... useful or dangerous. Living on the thin green surface of
 our small planet in a universe full of stars, we are not so different today. The wild
leaps up and more often than not we do not event know its name.
Robert Dunn, Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalogue Life, from
Nanobacteria to New Monkeys (2009) Introduction.
For your ignorance is the mother of your devotion to me.
John Dryden, The Maiden Queen (1667), Act I, scene 2.

Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.

George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876), Ch. XIII (1876).
Ignorance of one’s misfortunes is clear gain.
Euripides, Antiope, Frag. 204.

Ignorance is the dominion of absurdity.

James Anthony Froude, Short Studies on Great Subjects (1867–82), Party Politics.

Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine tätige Unwissenheit.

Nothing is worse than active ignorance.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Frederick Ungar, ed., Goethe's World View
Presented in His Reflections and Maxims (1963), p. 58–59.
There are, however, some potentates I would kill by any and all means at my
disposal. They are Ignorance, Superstition, and Bigotry — the most sinister and
tyrannical rulers on earth.
Emma Goldman, responding to audience questions during a speech in Detroit
(1898); as recounted in Living My Life (1931), p. 207; quoted by Annie Laurie
Gaylor in Women Without Superstition, p. 382.
And his best riches, ignorance of wealth.
Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village (1770), line 61.
To each his suff’rings; all are men,
Condemn’d alike to groan,—
The tender for another’s pain,
Th’ unfeeling for his own.
Yet ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
’T is folly to be wise.
Thomas Gray, repr. In Poetical Works, ed. J. Rogers (1953). Ode on a Distant
Prospect of Eton College, stanza 10 (written 1742, published 1747). [1] (http://ww
w.bartleby.com/66/73/25873.html)

H
 The Socratic maxim that the recognition of our ignorance is the beginning of
wisdom has profound significance for our understanding of society. The first
requisite for this is that we become aware of men’s necessary ignorance of much
that helps him to achieve his aims.
Friedrich Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty (1960), Chap. 2 : The Creative Powers
of a Free Civilization
A generation which ignores history has no past — and no future.
Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1973).
The wise preach to the ignorant when the latter ask them to do so. Through this
the ignorant may attain sudden enlightenment, and their mind thereby becomes
illuminated. Then they are no longer different from the wise men.
Huineng, Platform Sutra, Chapter 2

Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the truth who believes
nothing than he who believes what is wrong.
Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia (1781-1785), Query 6.
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what
never was and never will be.
Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey (http://oll.libertyfund.org/?op
tion=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=807&chapter=88152&layout=html
&Itemid=27) (6 January 1816) ME 14:384.
Bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and
buoyant. Education & free discussion are the antidotes of both.
Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams (August 1, 1816).
Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.
Jesus Luke 23:34
Ignorance, madam, pure ignorance.
Samuel Johnson, in reply to the lady who asked why "pastern" was defined in the
dictionary as "the knee of the horse". Boswell's Life of Johnson, (1755).
He that voluntarily continues ignorant is guilty of all the crimes which ignorance
produces.
Samuel Johnson, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning
Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 336.
There appears to be a discrepancy between the importance/self-relevance of
social issues and people’s willingness to engage with and learn about them...
Ignorance — as a function of the system justifying tendencies it may activate—
may, ironically, breed more ignorance.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, On the Perpetuation of Ignorance:
System Dependence, System Justification, and the Motivated Avoidance of
Sociopolitical Information, (https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-102-
2-264.pdf) by Steven Shepherd and Aaron C. Kay, (February 2012)
It has become clear that people turn to their external systems to regulate a
number of relational, existential, and epistemic threats... We leveraged this past
research to develop a novel explanation for how people’s tendency to trust in their
social systems, and outsource their worries and fears to these systems, can lead
to the propagation of ignorance in the context of important social issues.
 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, On the Perpetuation of Ignorance:
System Dependence, System Justification, and the Motivated Avoidance of
Sociopolitical Information, (https://www.apa.org/pubs/journals/releases/psp-102-
2-264.pdf) by Steven Shepherd and Aaron C. Kay, (February 2012)

So long as the mother, Ignorance, lives, it is not safe for Science, the offspring, to
divulge the hidden causes of things.
Johannes Kepler, Somnium (The Dream) (1620-1630).
We recognize that his hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and
misunderstanding, but in spite of this, we know God's image is ineffably etched in
being.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Loving Your Enemies (https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/ki
ng-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-bapti
st-church) (November 17, 1957)
Softmindedness often invades religion. … Softminded persons have revised the
Beautitudes to read "Blessed are the pure in ignorance: for they shall see God."
This has led to a widespread belief that there is a conflict between science and
religion. But this is not true. There may be a conflict between softminded
religionists and toughminded scientists, but not between science and religion. …
Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is
power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with
facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are
complementary.
Martin Luther King, Jr., in Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 1 : A tough mind and a
tender heart
There is little hope for us until we become toughminded enough to break loose
from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance. The shape of
the world today does not permit us the luxury of softmindedness.
Martin Luther King, Jr., in Strength to Love (1963), Ch. 1 : A tough mind and a
tender heart
Ignorance is a kind of insanity in the human animal. People who delight in
torturing defenseless children or tiny creatures are in reality insane. The terrible
thing is that people who are madmen in private may wear a totally bland and
innocent expression in public.
Akira Kurosawa 'Something Like an Autobiography (1981)

Unfortunately, the habit of praising or blaming without knowledge of the subject is

becoming increasingly common to men of all parties today. This is not due to the
failure of this or that doctrine, but to the crisis through which our whole civilisation
is passing. At the same time this regrettable tendency adds greatly to the
confusion in which all the sociological disputes of our day are taking place.
Lucien Laurat, Marxism and Democracy, 1940, published by the Left Book Club,
Victor Gollancz Ltd, London; translated by Edward Fitzgerald. Text online (https://
 www.marxists.org/archive/laurat/1940/marxism-democracy/index.htm) at the
Marxists Internet Archive.
Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words; but
opportunity will prevail.
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, "Cleobulus", iv.
He said that there was one only good, namely, knowledge; and one only evil,
namely, ignorance.
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, "Socrates", xiv

Variant: The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.
He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.
Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, "Socrates", xvi.

Bring your ignorance to the Holy Spirit, the great teacher, who by His precious
truth will lead you into all truth.
William Paton Mackay, reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning
Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 337.
There are three degrees of comparison: stupido, stupidissimo, and tenore.
Pietro Mascagni, in Scott Beach, Musicdotes, (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press,
1977), p. 94.
To be ignorant of one's own ignorance is to be in an unprogressive, uninspired
state of existence.
David O. McKay, Pathways To Happiness, (1957), pp. 351-352.
It's innocence when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn't.
Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966, Indianapolis: Bobbs-
Merrill
Ignorance is the parent of fear.
Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Ch. 3 (1851).
Are you of the stiff, the dry,
Cursing the not understood;
George Meredith The Woods of Westermain (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-woo
ds-of-westermain/) , st. 4 (1883).
Not to know me argues yourselves unknown,
The lowest of your throng.
John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book IV, line 830.
The living man who does not learn, is dark, dark, like one walking in the night.
Ming-hsin pao-chien ("Precious Mirror for Enlightening the Heart") (compiled c.
1393 by Fan Li-pen). Translation for Chinese Repository by Dr. William Milne.
All wisdom is folly that does not accommodate itself to the common ignorance.
Michel de Montaigne, Essais, Ch. III (1571-1592).
Knowledge and truth may be in us without judgment, and judgment also without
them; but the confession of ignorance is one of the finest and surest testimonies
of judgment that I know.
Michel de Montaigne, Essais, Ch. X (1571-1592).

N
 Not to know is bad; not to strive to know is worse.
Andre Norton, Dragon Magic (1972), Chapter 3

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Ch. 1, slogan of the Party (1949).

People who don't know any better will always be in the dark because the power
lies in the hands of men who take good care that ordinary folk don't understand, in
the hands, that is, of the government, of the clerical party, of the capitalists.
Cesare Pavese, The moon and the bonfire, chapter XXVI, p. 149.
From ignorance our comfort flows.
The only wretched are the wise.
Matthew Prior, To the Hon. Charles Montague (1692).
We live in a golden age of ignorance, and Trump and Brexit are part of that.
Robert N. Proctor, as quoted in "The problem with facts" (https://www.ft.com/cont
ent/eef2e2f8-0383-11e7-ace0-1ce02ef0def9) , by Tim Harford, in Financial
Times Magazine (9 March 2017)
Scientia non habet inimicum nisi ignorantem
Knowledge has no enemy except an ignorant man

George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie (1589), excerpted and translated in
Wayne A. Rebhorn, ed., Renaissance Debates on Rhetoric.

Ignorance is death. A closed mind is a catafalque.

Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life, (New York: Ballantine Books,
1998), p. 69.

If ignorance is bliss, then knock the smile off my face.

Zack de la Rocha, "Settle for Nothing", Rage Against the Machine (album), 1992.
The words of Lord Buddha that "ignorance is the greatest crime because it brings
all miseries to humanity" should be, by now, assimilated by the consciousness of
people. Until the leaders of the countries possess brilliant intellects and especially
a spiritual synthesis, which helps to embrace all the planes of existence, there will
be no real progress.
Helena Roerich, Letters of Helena Roerich I, (21 October 1931)
Everybody is ignorant only on different subjects.
Will Rogers, Paula McSpadden Love, The Will Rogers Book (1972), p. 119. The
author was a niece of Will Rogers, and curator of the Will Rogers Memorial in
Claremore, Oklahoma.
Ignorance cannot lead to evil, misconceptions lead to evil. It is not what people do
know, it’s what they pretend they do.
 Rousseau, as paraphrased by Tolstoy in A Calendar of Wisdom, P. Sekirin, trans.
(1997).
Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.
Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy (1945), Book Three, Part II,
Chapter XXI: Currents of Thought in the Nineteenth Century, p. 722.

So oft in theologic wars,

The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
John Godfrey Saxe, "The Blind Men and the Elephant," moral, The Poetical Works
of John Godfrey Saxe (1887), p. 112. While Saxe said this was a Hindu fable, the
story may be found in The Udna, or The Solemn Utterances of the Buddha, chapter
6, section 4, trans. Dawsonne M. Strong, p. 93–96 (1902).
It is my own peculiarity that I cannot bear ignorance, nor the ignorance of
ignoramuses, and even less the ignorance of the informed. Therefore, I decided
long ago to converse with the reader on this matter, and to construct before his
very eyes—and in his face, if necessary—a different, new reader, one constructed
according to my own ideas.
Friedrich Schlegel, “On Incomprehensibility” (1800), J. Schulte-Sasse, trans.,
Theory as Practice (1997), p. 146.
Ignorance is degrading only when found in company with riches. The poor man is
restrained by poverty and need: labour occupies his thoughts, and takes the place
of knowledge. But rich men who are ignorant live for their lusts only, and are like
the beasts of the field, as may be seen every day; and they can also be reproached
for not having used wealth and leisure for that which gives them their greatest
value.
Schopenhauer, “On books and reading,” Religion: a dialogue, and other essays, T.B.
Saunders, trans. (1910).
O thou monster, Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!
William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost (c. 1595-6), Act IV, scene 2, line 21.
The common curse of mankind,—folly and ignorance.
William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 3. (1602).
"Man," I cried, "how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!"
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Ch. 23 (1818).
Madam, thou errest: I say, there is no darkness, but ignorance; in which thou art
more puzzled, than the Egyptians in their fog.
William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act IV, scene 2, line 44.
If one neglects the laws of learning, a sentence is imposed that he is forever
chained to his ignorance.
Sterling W. Sill, The Power of Believing, (1968), p. 29.
Ignorant men
Don't know what good they hold in their hands until
They've flung it away.
 Sophocles, "Ajax", trans. John Moore, in David Grene and Richmond Lattimore,
eds., The Complete Greek Tragedies (1959), vol. 2, p. 250. There have been
numerous translations of this play by Sophocles, with varying translations of
these words, spoken by the character Tecmessa. The translation by George
Young, The Dramas of Sophocles, p. 102 (1888) reads, "Men of perverse opinion
do not know / The excellence of what is in their hands,/ Till some one dash it from
them".
Ignorantia non est argumentum.
Translation: Ignorance is no argument.

Baruch Spinoza, Ethica ordine geometrico demonstrata et in quinque parses

distincta, Part 1, Addendum; Amsterdam, 1677.

Originally used to oppose traditional theological views that everything exists and
is determined by divine intervention because no other plausible reason or
explanation is seen.
There's nothing as safe as ignorance — or as dangerous.
Rex Stout, "The Squirt and the Monkey" (1951), character of Nero Wolfe.
Ignoramuses are numerous in the palace.
Sumerian proverb, Collection VIII (http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/proverbs/t.6.1.08.
html) at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature, 3rd millennium BCE.

Ignorance is the mother of devotion.

Jeremy Taylor, To a Person Newly Converted (1657).
Blind and naked Ignorance
Delivers brawling judgments, unashamed,
On all things all day long.
Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King, Merlin and Vivien. Line 662. (1859-1885).
We struggle onward, ignorant and blind,
For a result unknown and undesign’d;
Avoiding seeming ills, misunderstood,
Embracing evil as a seeming good.
Theognis of Megara , Elegies Lines 137-139, as translated by J. Banks, The Works
of Hesiod, Callimachus, and Theognis (1856), p. 464 (http://books.google.com/bo
oks?id=QqFaP-4DExEC&pg=PA464)
How can he remember well his ignorance—which his growth requires—who has so
often to use his knowledge?
Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854).
The days of deadly ignorance will end, and they will end soon.
Donald Trump, speech after the 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting (transcript (htt
p://time.com/4367120/orlando-shooting-donald-trump-transcript/) )

Ignorance served no useful purpose; it changed no fact, it offered no shelter.

Michelle West, Echoes in Assassin Fantastic (ed. Martin H. Greenberg and
Alexander Potter, 2001), p. 267
 I do not approve of anything that tampers with natural ignorance. Ignorance is like
a delicate exotic fruit; touch it and the bloom is gone. The whole theory of modern
education is radically unsound. Fortunately in England, at any rate, education
produces no effect whatsoever. If it did, it would prove a serious danger to the
upper classes, and probably lead to acts of violence in Grosvenor Square.
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act I, spoken by Lady Bracknell
(1895).

Ignorance of each other is what has made unity impossible in the past. Therefore
we need enlightenment. We need more light about each other. Light creates
understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience
creates unity. Once we have more knowledge (light) about each other, we will stop
condemning each other and a United front will be brought about.
Malcolm X: The Man and his Times, edited by John Henrik Clarke, Africa World
Press (1990)
Don't be in such a hurry to condemn a person because he doesn't do what you do,
or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn't know what you
know today.
Malcolm X quoted in James L. Conyers, Andrew P. Smallwood, Malcolm X: A
Historical Reader, Carolina Academic Press, (2008)

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 385-

86.
Causarum ignoratio in re nova mirationem facit.
In extraordinary events ignorance of their causes produces astonishment.

Cicero, De Divinatione, II. 22.

Ignoratione rerum bonarum et malarum maxime hominum vita vexatur.
Through ignorance of what is good and what is bad, the life of men is greatly
perplexed.

Cicero, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, I. 13.

Non me pudet fateri nescire quod nesciam.
I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.

Cicero, Tusc. Quæst. I. 25. 60.

Ignorance seldom vaults into knowledge, but passes into it through an
intermediate state of obscurity, even as night into day through twilight.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Essay XVI.
Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.
George Eliot, Daniel Deronda (1876), Book II, Chapter XIII.
Often the cock-loft is empty, in those whom nature hath built many stories high.
Thomas Fuller, Andronicus, Section VI. Par. 18. 1.
Es ist nichts schrecklicher als eine thätige Unwissenheit.
There is nothing more frightful than an active ignorance.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Sprüche in Prosa, III.

Who ne'er knew salt, or heard the billows roar.
Homer, The Odyssey, Book XI, line 153. Pope's translation.
It was a childish ignorance,
But now 'tis little joy
To know I'm further off from heaven
Than when I was a boy.
Thomas Hood, I Remember, I Remember.
Rien n'est si dangereux qu'un ignorant ami:
Mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi.
Nothing is so dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is worth more.

Jean de La Fontaine, Fables, VIII. 10.

A man may live long, and die at last in ignorance of many truths, which his mind
was capable of knowing, and that with certainty.
John Locke, Human Understanding, Book I, Chapter II.
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to
correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of
black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The
sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but
some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such
terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either
go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a
new dark age.
H.P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)
But let a man know that there are things to be known, of which he is ignorant, and
it is so much carved out of his domain of universal knowledge.
Horace Mann, Lectures on Education, Lecture VI.
Quod latet ignotum est; ignoti nulla cupido.
What is hid is unknown: for what is unknown there is no desire.

Ovid, Ars Amatoria, III. 397.

It is better to be unborn than untaught: for ignorance is the root of misfortune.
Plato.
Etiam illud quod scies nesciveris;
Ne videris quod videris.
Know not what you know, and see not what you see.

Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, II. 6. 89.

Illi mors gravis incubat qui notus nimis omnibus ignotus moritur sibi.
Death presses heavily on that man, who, being but too well known to others, dies
in ignorance of himself.

Seneca the Younger, Thyestes, CCCCI.

The more we study, we the more discover our ignorance.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Scenes from the Magico Prodigioso of Calderon, scene 1.
Omne ignotum pro magnifico est.
Everything unknown is magnified.

Tacitus, Agricola, XXX. Quoting Galgacus, the British leader, to his subjects before
the battle of the Grampian Hills. Ritter says the sentence may be a "marginal
 gloss" and brackets it. Anticipated by Thucydides, Speech of Nicias, VI. 11. 4.
Homine imperito nunquam quidquid injustius,
Qui nisi quod ipse facit nihil rectum putat.
Nothing can be more unjust than the ignorant man, who thinks that nothing is well
done by himself.

Terence, Adelphi, I. 2. 18.

Ita me dii ament, ast ubi sim nescio.
As God loves me, I know not where I am.

Terence, Heauton timoroumenos, II. 3. 67.

Namque inscitia est,
Adversum stimulum calces.
It is consummate ignorance to kick against the pricks.

Terence, Phormio, I. 2. 27.

Credulity and confidence are the constant companions of ignorance.
Bartholomew Parr (1750-1810) "Quacks and Quack Medicines," (http://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=sy8_AAAAcAAJ&q=%22Credulity+and+confidence+are+the+co
nstant+companions+of+ignorance%22&pg=PA495#v=onepage) The London
Medical Dictionary (1809)

See also

Knowledge

Wisdom

Vices

External links

Virtues
Altruism • Asceticism • Beneficence • Benevolence • Bravery • Carefulness • Charity • Cheerfulness •
Cleanliness • Common sense • Compassion • Constancy • Courage • Dignity • Diligence • Discretion •
Earnestness • Faith • Fidelity • Forethought • Forgiveness • Friendship • Frugality • Gentleness • Goodness •
Grace • Gratitude • Holiness • Honesty • Honor • Hope • Hospitality • Humanity • Humility • Integrity •
Intelligence • Justice • Kindness • Love • Loyalty • Mercy • Moderation • Modesty • Optimism • Patience •
Philanthropy • Piety • Prudence • Punctuality • Poverty • Purity • Self-control • Simplicity • Sincerity • Sobriety
• Sympathy • Temperance • Tolerance

Vices
Aggression • Anger • Apathy • Arrogance • Bigotry • Contempt • Cowardice • Cruelty •
Dishonesty • Drunkenness • Egotism • Envy • Evil speaking • Gluttony • Greed • Hatred •
Hypocrisy • Idleness • Ignorance • Impatience • Impenitence • Ingratitude • Inhumanity •
Intemperance • Jealousy • Laziness • Lust • Malice • Neglect • Obstinacy • Philistinism •
Prejudice • Pretension • Pride • Recklessness • Self-righteousness • Selfishness •
Superficiality • Tryphé • Unkindness • Usury • Vanity • Worldliness
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Last edited 7 months ago by 78.133.71.196

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