Ignorant Quotes

• Being ignorant is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to learn.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Learning, Ignorance

  Benjamin Franklin (2012). “Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard's Almanack”, p.39, Courier Corporation

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• The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they're ignorant; it's just that they know so much that isn't so.

  Ronald Reagan

  Friends, Military, Political

  A Time for Choosing (aka "The Speech"), Air date 27 October 1964, Los Angeles, CA

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  I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.

  Galileo Galilei

  Inspirational, Attitude, Learning

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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 Obama

  Ignorance, Want, Folks

  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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• It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.

  William Gibbs McAdoo

  Ignorance, Humility, Men

  William Gibbs McAdoo (1971). “Crowded years: the reminiscences of William G. McAdoo”, Associated Faculty Pr Inc

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• Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Speak Your Mind, Years, People

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  Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Stupid, School

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition”, p.578, Routledge

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• We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Work, Stupid

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• When proven wrong, the wise man will correct himself and the ignorant will keep arguing.

  Ali ibn Abi Talib

  Wise, Wisdom, Islamic

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• To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Education, Knowledge, Intelligent

  "Sybil". Book by Benjamin Disraeli, Book I, Chapter 5, 1845.

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• Everybody is ignorant, only on different subjects.

  Will Rogers

  Inspirational, Education, Work

  The Illiterate Digest "Defending My Soup Plate Position" (1924)

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• The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

  William Osler

  Spiritual, Atheist, Learning

  Montreal Medical Journal Sept. 1902, p. 696

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  Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know.

  Aldous Huxley

  Ignorance, Justice, Diversity

  Aldous Huxley (2001). “Complete Essays: 1936-1938”, Ivan R Dee

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• 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.

  Charles Darwin

  Positive, Confidence, Ignorance

  Charles Darwin (2015). “Darwin on Evolution: Words of Wisdom from the Father of Evolution”, p.33, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.

  Mark Twain

  Love, Funny, Motivational

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.121, Courier Corporation

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• I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Education, Teacher, Ignorance

  "Tusculan Disputations". Book by Marcus Tullius Cicero, Book I. 25. 60, c. 45 BC.

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• 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

  Education, Freedom, War

  Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, 6 January 1816

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• I predict that the time will come in this once free America when the battle for religious liberty will have to be fought over again, and will probably be lost, because the people are already ignorant of its true basis and conditions.

  Robert Dabney

  Christian, Religious, America

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• The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: Be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.

  Elbert Hubbard

  Inspirational, Knowledge, Ignorance

  Elbert Hubbard (1902). “Contemplations: Being Several Short Essays Helpful Sermonettes, Epigrams and Orphic Sayings”

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• You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.

  Harlan Ellison

  Motivational, Stupid, Ignorance

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• Ignorance breeds monsters to fill up the vacancies of the soul that are unoccupied by the verities of knowledge.

  Horace Mann

  Ignorance, Soul, Monsters

  Horace Mann (1867). “Thoughts”, p.143

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• A wise man among the ignorant is as a beautiful girl in the company of blind men.

  Saadi

  Beautiful, Girl, Wise

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• Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.

  Bernard Berenson

  Inspirational, Creativity, Ignorance

  Bernard Berenson (1962). “The Bernard Berenson Treasury: A Selection from the Works, Unpublished Writings, Letters, Diaries, and Journals of the Most Celebrated Humanist and Art Historian of Our Times, 1887-1958”

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• A newspaper is a device for making the ignorant more ignorant and the crazy crazier.

  H. L. Mencken

  Freedom, Crazy, Ignorance

  "A Mencken Chrestomathy". Book by H. L. Mencken, 1949.

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• To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Inspirational, Humorous, Ignorance

  Amos Bronson Alcott (1877). “Table-talk”

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