All Quotes By Tag: Ignorance

“he who will not economize will have to agonize”

“There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.”

“The truth is always something that is told, not something that is known. If there were no speaking or writing, there would be no truth about anything. There would only be what is.”

“Only ignorance excuses stupidity”

“Nothing can illustrate these observations more forcibly, than a recollection of the happy conjuncture of times and circumstances, under which our Republic assumed its rank among the Nations; The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epoch when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period, the researches of the human mind, after social happiness, have been carried to a great extent, the Treasures of knowledge, acquired by the labours of Philosophers, Sages and Legislatures, through a long succession of years, are laid open for our use, and their collected wisdom may be happily applied in the Establishment of our forms of Government; the free cultivation of Letters, the unbounded extension of Commerce, the progressive refinement of Manners, the growing liberality of sentiment… have had a meliorating influence on mankind and increased the blessings of Society. At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation, and if their Citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own.[Circular to the States, 8 June 1783 – Writings 26:484–89]”

“Ignorance is hardly unusual, Miss Davar. The longer I live, the more I come to realize that it is the natural state of the human mind. There are many who will strive to defend its sanctity and then expect you to be impressed with their efforts.”

“Suppose that we are wise enough to learn and know—and yet not wise enough to control our learning and knowledge, so that we use it to destroy ourselves? Even if that is so, knowledge remains better than ignorance. It is better to know—even if the knowledge endures only for the moment that comes before destruction—than to gain eternal life at the price of a dull and swinish lack of comprehension of a universe that swirls unseen before us in all its wonder. That was the choice of Achilles, and it is mine, too.”

“He must be very ignorant for he answers every question he is asked.”

“Travel brings wisdom only to the wise. It renders the ignorant more ignorant than ever.”

“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.”

“It takes a very long time to become young.”

“The truth. Men will blind themselves with hot irons, rather than face it.”

“I died last night. Seventy years too young.”

“God in His omnipotence says, ‘Here it is.’ And we in our ignorance say, ‘No it’s not!’ And in the end there it was, and where it is we are not.”

“But to live in ignorance on such a point was impossible.”