Ignorant Quotes - Page 40

• I believe the calculation of the quantity of probability might be improved to a very useful and pleasant speculation, and applied to a great many events which are accidental, besides those of games; only these cases would be infinitely more confused, as depending on chances which the most part of men are ignorant of.

  John Arbuthnot

  Confused, Believe, Men

  John Arbuthnot (1770). “Miscellaneous Works of the Late Dr. Arbuthnot”, p.260

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• The system concedes nothing without demand, for it formulates its very method of operation on the basis that the ignorant will learn to know, the child will grow into an adult and therefore demands will begin to be made. It gears itself to resist demands in whatever way it sees fit.

  Steven Biko

  Children, Adults, Gears

  "I Write What I Like (The Quest for a True Humanity)". Book by Steven Biko, 1978.

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• The poor yield to the rich, the common people to the upper ten, the servants to their masters, the ignorant to the scholars; but there is nobody who does not imagine that he is really better than others.

  John Calvin

  Yield, People, Doe

  John Calvin (2004). “Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life”, p.32, Baker Books

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• They kept on hollering, and I simply had to put my foot down. I said, 'I'm the governor and I say the ignorant in this state have to learn, blacks as well as whites.' And they learned.

  Huey Long

  Feet, Long, States

  "Huey Long". Book by T. Harry Williams, 1969.

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• A political system seeking to function amongst ignorant, illiterate and barbaric people could have marvelous principles but could only succeed in being ignorant, illiterate and barbaric unless one addressed the people one by one and cured the ignorance, illiteracy and barbarism of each citizen.

  L. Ron Hubbard

  Ignorance, People, Political

  "Politics". Scientology Policy Letter, February 13, 1965.

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• Thus for each blunt-faced ignorant one The great grey rigid uniform combined Safety with virtue of the sun. Thus concepts linked like chainmail in the mind.

  Thom Gunn

  Safety, Mind, Uniforms

  Thom Gunn (2017). “Selected Poems of Thom Gunn”, p.57, Faber & Faber

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• The Americans... are almost ignorant of the art of music, one of the most elevating, innocent and refining of human tastes, whose influence on the habits and morals of a people is of the most beneficial tendency.

  James F. Cooper

  Art, People, Taste

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

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• But however mysterious is nature , however ignorant the doctor, however imperfect the present state of physical science , the patronage and the success of quacks and quackeries are infinitely more wonderful than those of honest and laborious men of science and their careful experiments.

  P. T. Barnum

  Men, Doctors, Mysterious

  P. T. Barnum (2013). “The Humbugs of the World”, p.149, Lulu.com

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• 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

  Towns, Propriety

  Fanny Burney (1857). “Evelina: Or, The History of a Young Lady's Introduction to the World”, p.56

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• No, liberty is not made for us: we are too ignorant, too vain, too presumptious, too cowardly, too vile, too corrupt, too attached to rest and to pleasure, too much slaves to fortune to ever know the true price of liberty. We boast of being free! To show how much we have become slaves, it is enough just to cast a glance on the capital and examine the morals of its inhabitants.

  Jean-Paul Marat

  Being Free, Liberty, Too Much

  L'Ami du peuple newspaper, No. 559, August 27, 1791.

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• the miserable specimens who call themselves ' liberals ' are really conservatives: they're desperately even hysterically defending a welfare-warfare kleptocracy that is now at least four generations old, against growing numbers of us (unlike Republicans , who seem to become more ignorant with every passing year) who have actually managed to learn something from history and are struggling to dismantle said kleptocracy.

  L. Neil Smith

  Struggle, Numbers, Years

  "A Matter of Definition". The Libertarian Enterprise Article, www.ncc-1776.org. August 08, 2010.

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• The American capitalists are richer and stronger than their counterparts in other lands. They are also younger and more ignorant, and therefore more inclined to seek a rough settlement of difficulties without diplomatic subtlety and finesse. All that does not change the fact that American capitalism operates according to the same laws as the others, is confronted with the same fundamental problems, and is headed toward the same catastrophe.

  James P. Cannon

  Law, Land, Stronger

  "Fascism and The Workers’ Movement". The Militant, www.marxists.org. March-April 1954.

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• Men ignorant of letters, studious for their bellies, and ignominiously lazy.

  George Sandys

  Men, Lazy, Letters

  1610 On the monks of Patmos. Relation of aJourney Begun An. Dom.1610.

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• To ask may be but a moment's shame, not to ask and remain ignorant is a lifelong shame.

  Kano Jigoro

  May, Shame, Moments

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• Still how unenlightened and ignorant are the very nations we term civilized!

  Jean-Baptiste Say

  Term, Civilized, Stills

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• Until recently baby production was largely dependent on slave labour; as soon as women are allowed to answer the question "Would you like to squeeze as many objects the size of a watermelon out of your body as it takes to kill you?" they generally answer "No, thank you." This leads to falling birthrates everywhere women are not kept enslaved and ignorant of the alternatives.

  James Nicoll

  Baby, Fall, Alternatives

  Usenet article, 2005.

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• I confess that Magic teacheth many superfluous things, and curious prodigies for ostentation; leave them as empty things, yet be not ignorant of their causes. But those things which are for the profit of men -- for the turning away of evil events, for the destroying of sorceries, for the curing of diseases, for the exterminating of phantasms, for the preserving of life, honor, or fortune -- may be done without offense to God or injury to religion, because they are, as profitable, so necessary.

  Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa

  Men, Evil, Honor

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• We can only escape the bloody and ignorant nightmare of history by exploring alternatives which today look frighteningly weird.

  Peter J. Carroll

  Alternatives, Looks, Today

  "Psybermagick: Advanced Ideas in Chaos Magick". Book by Peter J. Carroll, 1995.

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• The tragedy is not that nonviolence did not work against the Nazis, but that it was so seldom utilized... The churches as a whole were too docile or anti-semitic, and too ignorant of the nonviolent message of the Gospel, to act effectively to resist the Nazis or act in solidarity with the Jews.

  Walter Wink

  Tragedy, Church, Messages

  "Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination". Book by Walter Wink (pp. 254-256), 1992.

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• By realizing that we are ignorant of the most important things, we realize at the same time that the most important thing for us, or the one thing needful, is quest for knowledge of the most important things or quest for wisdom.

  Leo Strauss

  Important, Quests, Realizing

  Leo Strauss (1953). “Natural Right and History”, p.36, University of Chicago Press

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• 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 Bailyn

  Men, America, Groups

  Bernard Bailyn (2012). “The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution”, p.231, Harvard University Press

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• Every creed is a rock in running water: humanity sweeps by it. Every creed cries to the universe, "Halt!" A creed is the ignorant Past bulling the enlightened Present.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Running, Past, Rocks

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.90, Library of Alexandria

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• Gold in its native state is but dull, unornamental stuff, and only lowborn metals excite the admiration of the ignorant with an ostentatious glitter. However, like the rest of the world, I still go on underrating men of gold and glorifying men of mica.

  Mark Twain

  Men, Gold, Goes On

  Mark Twain (2008). “10 Books in 1”, p.583, Shoes & Ships & Sealing Wax

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• The happiness even of the naturalist depends in some measure upon his ignorance, which still leaves him new worlds of this kind to conquer. He may have reached the very Z of knowledge in the books, but he still feels half ignorant until he has confirmed each bright particular with his eyes.

  Robert Wilson Lynd

  Book, Ignorance, Eye

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• I have been accused of being ignorant of economics (although I am the founder and Chairman of the Board of a company which publishes seven professional economic newsletters), of being ignorant of sociology (although I am trained in sociology and was C. Wright Mills' research assistant at Columbia), of being unable to use statistics (although I earned my living as a professional statistician for five years) and of ignoring political factors (although all my graduate training was in political science).

  Lloyd deMause

  Years, Political, Training

  Lloyd DeMause (1975). “The New Psychohistory”, New York : Psychohistory Press

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