quotes about Ignorant
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To believe something in the face of evidence and against reason - to believe something by faith - is ignoble, irresponsible and ignorant, and merits the opposite of respect,
-- A.C. GraylingSource : A.C. Grayling (2012). “Against All Gods: Six Polemics on Religion and an Essay on Kindness”, p.8, Oberon Books
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If an ignorant person is attracted by the things of the world, that is bad. But if a learned person is thus attracted, it is worse.
-- Abu Bakr -
Once a sage asked why scholars always flock to the doors of the rich, whilst the rich are not inclined to call at the doors of scholars. ‘The scholars‘ he answered , ‘are well aware of the use of money, but the rich are ignorant of the nobility of science.’
-- Abu Rayhan al-Biruni -
If I had my way, I'd end all wars and poverty. We should all be more aware of what's going on in the world around us and less ignorant.
-- Adora SvitakSource : "Adora Svitak Likes French Philosophy, Reads Three Novels A Day, Has Written 400 Short Stories And Champions Feminism And World Peace. She Is 8". www.mirror.co.uk. September 28, 2006.
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It seems we're not only uninformed about our present, we're ignorant of our past.
-- Adora Svitak -
I would rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evils.
-- Aeschylus -
We should leave behind discrimination, because it is narrow-minded and ignorant, denies contact and warmth, and corrodes mankind’s belief that we can better ourselves. The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war, and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, concern, and good intentions.
-- Ai Weiwei -
The mind of an enlightened human being is flexible and adaptable. The mind of the ignorant person is conditioned and fixed.
-- Ajahn SumedhoSource : "23 Warning Signs of a Toxic Friend" by Ann Davis, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 8, 2016.
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Today's younger generation is no worse than my own. We were just as ignorant and repulsive as they are, but nobody listened to us.
-- Al Capp -
The position of modern science, as far as an ignorant man of letters can understand it, seems not a step in advance of that held by Huxley and Romanes in the last century.
-- Albert J. Nock -
Where I am ignorant, Lord, teach me. Where I am wrong, Lord, correct me. Where I am right, Lord, confirm me.
-- Albert Martin -
The doctrines of the Bible are often not clothed in the language of strict truth, but in that which was fittest to convey to a rude and ignorant people the practical essentials of the doctrine.
-- Albert Pike -
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If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.
-- Aldous Huxley -
I am ignorant and impotent and yet, somehow or other, here I am, unhappy, no doubt, profoundly dissatisfied ... In spite of everything I survive.
-- Aldous Huxley -
It is necessary that we stop, once for all, this ignorant meddling with other people's business. Each individual must be left free to follow his own path.
-- Aleister CrowleySource : Aleister Crowley (1975). “The Commentaries of AL: Being the Equinox Volume V, No. 1”, Weiser Books
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There never was any party, faction, sect, or cabal whatsoever, in which the most ignorant were not the most violent; for a bee is not a busier animal than a blockhead.
-- Alexander Pope -
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As well might it be said that, because we are ignorant of the laws by which metals are produced and trees developed, we cannot know anything of the origin of steamships and railways
-- Alfred Russel WallaceSource : Alfred Russel Wallace, Andrew Berry (2003). “Infinite Tropics: An Alfred Russel Wallace Anthology”, p.85, Verso
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The saddest thing about any man is that he be ignorant, and the most exciting thing is that he knows.
-- Alfred the Great -
When proven wrong, the wise man will correct himself and the ignorant will keep arguing.
-- Ali ibn Abi Talib -
The damage can fester under layers of time and change, and an ignorant, thoughtless remark can easily reopen the wound.
-- Alice Sebold -
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We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished.
-- Allan Bloom -
Only Socrates knew, after a lifetime of unceasing labor, that he was ignorant. Now every high-school student knows that. How did it become so easy?
-- Allan Bloom -
A mind devoid of prepossessions is likely to be devoid of all mental furniture. And the historian who thinks that he can clean his mind as he would a slate with a wet sponge, is ignorant of the simplest facts of mental life.
-- Allen Johnson -
But Fear and the Muse in turn guard the place Where the banished poet has gone And the night that comes with quickened pace Is ignorant of dawn.
-- Anna Akhmatova -
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Ignorant free speech often works against the speaker. That is one of several reasons why it must be given rein instead of suppressed.
-- Anna Quindlen -
Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending; a negligent youth is usually attended by an ignorant middle age, and both by an empty old age.
-- Anne BradstreetSource : Anne Bradstreet, Adelaide P. Amore (1982). “A woman's inner world: selected poetry and prose of Anne Bradstreet”
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A man told me that for a woman, I was very opinionated. I said, 'for a man you're kind of ignorant'.
-- Anne Hathaway -
I could do nothing but Brooklyn shows for the rest of my career, and I could die ignorant.
-- Anthony Bourdain -
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To be ignorant of motion is to be ignorant of nature
-- Aristotle -
We have copped a lot of ignorant abuse in the past, but it makes you wonder when a former state coroner openly attacks Aboriginal families who have been through hell.
-- Arthur Murray -
An ignorant doctor is the aide-de-camp of death.
-- Avicenna -
Recognizing how totally ignorant you are is the only honest way to deal with people who've been through something traumatic.
-- Banana Yoshimoto -
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When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don't really have to do anything, you just let them talk.
-- Barack ObamaSource : Joint Press Conference with President Obama and Prime Minister Najib of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. April 27, 2014.
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I like blues but it is music I am too ignorant to understand.
-- Barry Gibb -
I desire not to desire, for my will is without value, since I am ignorant in any case. Therefore choose Thou for me what thou knowest to be best and do not put my perdition in what my autonomy and free choice prefer.
-- Bayazid Bastami -
Tis not the wholesome sharp mortality, Or modest anger of a satiric spirit, That hurts or wounds the body of a state, But the sinister application Of the malicious, ignorant, and base Interpreter; who will distort and strain The general scope and purpose of an author To his particular and private spleen.
-- Ben Jonson -
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Love that is ignorant and hatred have almost the same ends.
-- Ben Jonson -
Most fools think they are only ignorant.
-- Benjamin Franklin -
Up and down the the still sparsely settled coast of British North America, groups of men-intellectuals and farmers, scholars and merchants, the learned and the ignorant-gathered for the purpose of constructing enlightened governments.
-- Bernard BailynSource : Bernard Bailyn (2012). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”, p.231, Harvard University Press
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Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.
-- Bertrand Russell -
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If we belong to Christ, Satan has no right to exercise authority over us, but he hopes we're too ignorant regarding Scripture to know it.
-- Beth Moore -
If you are ignorant of God's Word, you will always be ignorant of God's will.
-- Billy Graham -
I regard a human being as simply a human being, whether he is from this world or another, or whether he is a beggar, or God in person, and whether he is ignorant or wise, they are all of equal right. No one has more right than any other, and nobody is more than any other.
-- Billy Meier -
We know then the existence and nature of the finite, because we also are finite and have extension. We know the existence of the infinite and are ignorant of its nature, because it has extension like us, but not limits like us. But we know neither the existence nor the nature of God, because he has neither extension nor limits.
-- Blaise Pascal -
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I did stand-up, weird and ignorant stuff about my career - anything for a laugh.
-- Bob Uecker -
Never get to the point where you will be ashamed to ask anybody for information. The ignorant man will always be ignorant if he fears that by asking another for information he will display ignorance. Better once display your ignorance of a certain subject than always know nothing of it.
-- Booker T. Washington -
This is why I believe that many of our current eschatologies, intoxicated by dubious interpretations of John’s Apocalypse are not only ignorant and wrong, but dangerous and immoral.
-- Brian D. McLaren -
To be ignorant and simple now-not to be able to meet the enemies on their own ground-would be to throw down our weapons and to betray our uneducated brethren who have, under God, no defense but us against the intellectual attacks of the heathen. Good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.
-- C. S. Lewis -
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There is, of course, no complete solution. But we can do something. The chief means open to us is education There is no excuse for letting another generation be as vastly ignorant, or as devoid of understanding and sympathy, as we are ourselves.
-- C.P. Snow -
I sold my soul for knowledge of the future, only to have that very pact render me forever ignorant (Gerald Tarrant).
-- C.S. FriedmanSource : C.S. Friedman (1994). “When True Night Falls: The Coldfire Trilogy, Book Two”, p.301, Penguin
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There is a constant rush to judgment in Foucault. He is filled with specious generalizations, false categories, distortions, fudging, pretenses to knowledge in areas where he was ignorant. He had no ability whatsoever to distinguish among historical sources, where he makes terrible blunders.
-- Camille Paglia -
The number one problem in academia today is not ignorant students but ignorant professors, who have substituted narrow "expertise" and "theoretical sophistication" (a preposterous term) for breadth and depth of learning in the world history of art and thought. ... Art is a vast, ancient interconnected web-work, a fabricated tradition. Overconcentration on any one point is a distortion. This is one of the primary reasons for the dullness and ineptitude of so much twentieth-criticism, as compared to nineteenth-century belles-lettres.
-- Camille Paglia -
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Nobody with an IQ higher than emergency-room temperature could ever believe that 'death panels' would be appointed to nudge the elderly toward euthanasia. Yet for idle entertainment, it's hard to beat Sarah Palin's ignorant nattering on the subject.
-- Carl Hiaasen -
It is only the young and callow and ignorant that admire rashness. Think before you speak. Know your subject.
-- Cass Gilbert -
Woman's great mission is to train immature, weak and ignorant creatures to obey the laws of God; the physical, the intellectual, the social and the moral.
-- Catharine BeecherSource : Catharine Esther Beecher (1872). “Woman's Profession as Mother and Educator: With Views in Opposition to Woman Suffrage”, p.175
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The ignorant man always adores what he cannot understand
-- Cesare LombrosoSource : Cesare Lombroso (2017). “The Man of Genius”, p.228, Litres
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So I think it's better to say something than not to say anything at all, even to an ignorant person.
-- Chad Hugo -
Although most Americans may be largely ignorant of what was, and still is, being done in their names, all are likely to pay a steep price-individua lly and collectively-fo r their nation's continued efforts to dominate the global scene.
-- Chalmers JohnsonSource : "Who armed Iraq?" by Paul Rockwell, www.sfgate.com. March 2, 2003.
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Thing is, while I know better, I like sounding ignorant. Talk like this and people figure you're about as dumb as a fencepost, which suits me fine. Makes it all that much easier to take advantage of 'em.
-- Charles de Lint -
The old fashioned family physician and general practitioner ... was a splendid figure and useful person in his day; but he was badly trained, he was often ignorant, he made many mistakes, for one cannot by force of character and geniality of person make a diagnosis of appendicitis, or recognize streptococcus infection.
-- Charles Loomis Dana -
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While some of us may know than others about certain things, it is the thinnest slice of all that is, or could be known. In that sense, we are all profoundly ignorant.
-- Charles OsgoodSource : Charles Osgood (1992). “The Osgood Files”, Fawcett
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We...are not really free if we can't control our own government and its policies. And we will never do that if we remain ignorant.
-- Charley Reese -
Do not fret over the ignorant person; surely they have not had the opportunities which illuminated your path.
-- Chico Xavier -
When someone refuses to tell me a certain piece of information, it only makes me that much more determined to find out the truth. I hate being ignorant. For me, a question unanswered is like a thorn in my side
-- Christopher Paolini -
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Ignorant men differ from beasts only in their figure.
-- Cleanthes -
If you are interested in improving, think of a draw offer as an offer to remain ignorant of what you would have learned in the remainder of the game.
-- Dan Heisman -
Hateful, blasphemous, prejudiced, vulgar, rude, or ignorant remarks are the music of a free society, and the relentless patter of idiots is how we know we're in one. When all the words in our public conversation are fair, good, and true, it's time to make a run for the fence.
-- Daniel Gilbert -
Oh blind, oh ignorant, self-seeking cupidity whcih spurs as so in the short mortal life and steeps as through all eternity.
-- Dante Alighieri -
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It forms a strong presumption against all supernatural and miraculous relations, that they are observed chiefly to abound among ignorant and barbarous nations; or if a civilized people has ever given admission to any of them, that people will be found to have received them from ignorant and barbarous ancestors.
-- David Hume -
Zionism is a subject that all but a few are either too ignorant or too frightened to tackle and expose, but it must be made public and the web dismantled if global tyranny is to be avoided in the very near future.
-- David Icke -
George P. A. Healy; "I knew no one in France, I was utterly ignorant of the language, I did not know what I should do when once there; but I was not yet one-and-twenty, and I had a great stock of courage, of inexperience—which is sometimes a great help—and a strong desire to be my very best.
-- David McCullough -
Any nation that expects to be ignorant and free," Jefferson said, "expects what never was and never will be." And if the gap between the educated and the uneducated in America continues to grow as it is in our time, as fast as or faster than the gap between the rich and the poor, the gap between the educated and the uneducated is going to be of greater consequence and the more serious threat to our way of life. We must not, by any means, misunderstand that.
-- David McCullough -
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If the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) raises the hackles of the conspiracy theorists, the Bilderberg meetings must induce apocalyptic visions of omnipotent international bankers plotting with unscrupulous government officials to impose cunning schemes on an ignorant and unsuspecting world.
-- David Rockefeller -
Being locked up is one thing, but to have no concept of confinement, to be ignorant of its terms and never understand that struggle is useless - that's what hell must be like.
-- David Sedaris -
I know that the blacks, take them half enlightened and ignorant, are more humane and merciful than the most enlightened and refined European that can be found in all the earth.
-- David WalkerSource : David Walker (2008). “Walker's Appeal”, p.28, Applewood Books
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To pretend that civilization can exist without destroying its own landbase and the landbases and cultures of others is to be entirely ignorant of history, biology, thermodynamics, morality, and self-preservation.
-- Derrick Jensen -
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Dave Rudabaugh is an ignorant scoundrel! I disapprove of his very existence. I considered ending it myself on several occasions but self-control got the better of me.
-- Doc Holliday -
To grow old is to lose everything. Aging, everybody knows it. Even when we are young, we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads when a grandfather dies. Then we row for years on the midsummer pond, ignorant and content.
-- Donald HallSource : Donald Hall (2015). “The Selected Poems of Donald Hall”, p.133, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
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The scientific approach to the phenomenon of human nature enables us to be ignorant without bieng frightened, and without, therefore, having to invent all sorts of wierd theories to explain away our gaps in knowledge.
-- Donald Woods Winnicott -
The best way to go into an unknown territory is to go in ignorant, ignorant as possible, with your mind wide open, as wide open as possible and not having to meet anyone else's requirement but your own.
-- Dorothea Lange -
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You're damn right we need a rational code of morality and ethics. But not much progress can be made in that direction while we've still got a majority ranting about gods, devils, souls, and absolute morality, and using an ancient book written by ignorant nomads as a guide.
-- Doug Graham -
I'm quite ignorant about fashion and I'm colourblind, so it's all a tad tricky. My only knowledge of that world comes through Christopher Bailey, whom I first met in 2008 when I did a campaign for Burberry that featured musicians, artists, actors and sportsmen.
-- Eddie Redmayne -
It seems to me that we are profoundly ignorant of ourselves
-- Edward Bond -
...learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy..
-- Edwin A. AbbottSource : Edwin A. Abbott, Thomas Banchoff, Seth Caplan, Jeffrey Travis, Dano Johnson (2009). “Flatland: The Movie Edition”, p.80, Princeton University Press
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Love points the way. Desire is its ignorant advisor.
-- Elfriede JelinekSource : Elfriede Jelinek (2010). “The Piano Teacher”, p.277, Profile Books
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A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth. To feel the burning itch of curiosity requires both that you be ignorant, and that you desire to relinquish your ignorance.
-- Eliezer Yudkowsky -
Either grant me the bliss of the ignorant or give me the strength to bear the knowledge.
-- Elif Safak -
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It may be safely averred that good cookery is the best and truest economy, turning to full account every wholesome article of food, and converting into palatable meals what the ignorant either render uneatable or throw away in disdain.
-- Eliza ActonSource : Eliza Acton (1865). “Modern Cookery: For Private Families... a Series of Carefully Tested Receipts...”, p.8
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Ignorant people always suppose that popular writers are wonderfully well-paid - and must be making rapid fortunes - because they neither starve in garrets, nor wear rags - at least in America.
-- Eliza LeslieSource : Eliza Leslie (1839). “Miss Leslie's Behaviour Book: A Guide and Manual for Ladies as Regards Their Conversation; Manners; Dress; with Full Instructions and Advice in Letter Writing [!]; Receiving Presents; Incorrect Words”, p.259
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Trust a girl of sixteen for knowing well if she is pretty; concerning her plainness she may be ignorant.
-- Elizabeth Gaskell -
Brass shines as fair to the ignorant as gold to the goldsmiths.
-- Elizabeth I -
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Fortunately, perhaps, I was completely ignorant of the orthodox theory of the disease polio-myelitis.
-- Elizabeth Kenny -
If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.
-- Epictetus -
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.
-- Eric Hoffer -
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Personally, I think wearing a baby chinchilla says, 'I'm ignorant.'
-- Eva Mendes -
I am too inexperienced and ignorant to conduct myself with propriety in this town, where every thing is new to me, and many things are unaccountable and perplexing.
-- Fanny Burney -
There is torture of mind as well as body; the will is as much affected by fear as by force. And there comes a point where this Court should not be ignorant as judges of what we know as men.
-- Felix Frankfurter -
Were Kennedy not a millionaire, illiterate and ignorant, then he would obviously understand that you cannot revolt against the peasants.
-- Fidel Castro -