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

  424 Copy quote

• Either grant me the bliss of the ignorant or give me the strength to bear the knowledge.

  Elif Safak

  Giving, Bears, Give Me Strength

  86 Copy quote

• Agnostic is the Greek word, for the Latin word, for ignorant

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Latin, Greek, Agnostic

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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

  1972 Copy quote
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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

  253 Copy quote

• I think that we’re a culture that runs away from death, for good reason. Nobody really wants to think about the fact that we’re going to be lifeless food for worms in a coffin someday. But at the same time, I feel like knowing that you’re going to die can be an incredibly rewarding, powerful knowledge. It inspires us to live in ways that we wouldn’t if we were ignorant. I feel like that has inspired me to care about every breath. For me it’s not a morbid curiosity, it’s just wanting to make sure that every moment I have here on the Earth while I am breathing is accounted for.

  Jon Foreman

  Running, Powerful, Thinking

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• If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be ... The People cannot be safe without information. When the press is free, and every man is able to read, all is safe.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Truth, Men, People

  Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816.

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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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• He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Education, Horse, Ignorance

  Benjamin Franklin (1998). “Benjamin Franklin Wit and Wisdom”, p.30, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

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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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• An ignorant person is, by the very fact of his or her ignorance, a very dangerous person.

  Hendrik Willem van Loon

  Ignorance, Facts, Dangerous

  8 Copy quote

• The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

  William Osler

  Spiritual, Atheist, Learning

  Montreal Medical Journal Sept. 1902, p. 696

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• Nothing is more terrible than to see ignorance in action.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Ignorance, Literature, Statistics

  Maxims and Reflections I

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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