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Ignorance Quotes

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Ignorance Quotes

“Absurd, irreducible; nothing — not even a profound and secret delirium of nature — could explain it. Obviously I did not know everything, I had not seen the seeds sprout, or the tree grow. But faced with this great wrinkled paw, neither ignorance nor knowledge was important: the world of explanations and reasons is not the world of existence. A circle is not absurd, it is clearly explained by the rotation of a straight segment around one of its extremities. But neither does a circle exist. This root, on the other hand, existed in such a way that I could not explain it.”

KnowsWorldWayDoeImportantReasonHandsGrowsSecretExistenceTreeIgnoranceRootsProfoundSeedsCirclesAbsurdExplanationPawsDeliriumSproutsExtremityNauseaRotation
Author:Jean-Paul Sartre
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“Science tells us what we can know but what we can know is little and if we forget how much we cannot know we become insensitive of many things of very great importance. Theology, on the other hand induces a dogmatic belief that we have knowledge where in fact we have ignorance and by doing so generates a kind of impertinent insolence towards the universe. Uncertainty in the presence of vivid hopes and fears is painful, but must be endured if we wish to live without the support of comforting fairy tales.”

IfsKnowsKindLittlesFactsHandsUniverseBeliefWishForgetSupportIgnoranceImportancePainfulTheologyTalesUncertaintyFairyFairy TaleComfortingVividDogmaticInsensitiveHopes And FearsInsolence
Book:History of Western Philosophy: Collectors Edition
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“The antagonism between science and religion, about which we hear so much, appears to me to be purely factitiousfabricated, on the one hand, by short-sighted religious people who confound a certain branch of science, theology, with religion; and, on the other, by equally short-sighted scientific people who forget that science takes for its province only that which is susceptible of clear intellectual comprehension; and that, outside the boundaries of that province, they must be content with imagination, with hope, and with ignorance”

PeopleHandsCertainImaginationReligiousForgetClearIgnoranceIntellectualBoundariesTheologyBranchesScience And ReligionComprehensionProvincesSusceptibleAntagonismShort Sighted
Book:Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions
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“His sumptuous tents, and those of his satraps, afforded an immense booty to the conqueror; and an incident is mentioned which proves the rustic but martial ignorance of the legions in the elegant superfluities of life. A bag of shining leather, filled with pearls, fell into the hands of a private soldier; he carefully preserved the bag, but he threw away its contents, judging that whatever was of no use could not possibly be of any value.”

UseHandsValuesHistoryIgnoranceJudgingProveFilledShiningSoldierBagsImmensePearlsElegantIncidentsLeatherRoman EmpireConquerorTentsLegionBootyRusticSumptuous
Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1
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“So long as the mental and moral instruction of man is left solely in the hands of hired servants of the public--let them be teachers of religion, professors of colleges, authors of books, or editors of journals or periodical publications, dependent upon their literary incomes for their daily bread, so long shall we hear but half the truth; and well if we hear so much. Our teachers, political, scientific, moral, or religious; our writers, grave or gay, are compelled to administer to our prejudices and to perpetuate our ignorance.”

IfsMenWellsLongBookHandsPoliticalLeftReligiousHalfMoralTeacherIgnoranceCollegeGayPrejudiceGravesIncomeBreadServantDependentEditorsProfessorsInstructionJournalCompelledPublicationDaily Bread
Author:Frances Wright
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“... so long as woman sat with bandaged eyes and manacled hands, fast bound in the clamps of ignorance and inaction, the world of thought moved in its orbit like the revolutions of the moon; with one face (the man's face) always out, so that the spectator could not distinguish whether it was disc or sphere.”

ThinkingMenWorldLongHandsEyeFacesIgnoranceRevolutionMoonMovedBoundsSatThoughtfulSpheresSpectatorsInactionOrbitDiscs
Book:The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper: Including A Voice from the South and Other Important Essays, Papers, and Letters
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“There's a great difference between knowing that a thing is so, and knowing how to use that knowledge for the good of mankind. Thetrouble with a scientist is we quickly tire of our discoveries. We hand them over to people who are not ready for them, while we go off again into the darkness of ignorance, searching for other discoveries, which will be mishandled in just the same way when the time comes.”

PeopleWayUseHandsScienceDifferencesDarknessKnowingMankindIgnoranceReadyDiscoveryScientistTireNot Ready
Author:Jimmy Sangster
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“But, if the knowledge of the occult powers of nature opens the spiritual sight of man, enlarges his intellectual faculties, and leads him unerringly to a profounder veneration for the Creator, on the other hand ignorance, dogmatic narrow-mindedness, and a childish fear of looking to the bottom of things, invariably leads to fetish-worship and superstition.”

IfsMenHandsSpiritualIgnoranceWorshipIntellectualSightBottomCreatorFacultySuperstitionsOccultDogmaticFetishVenerationNarrow MindednessPower Of Nature
Book:Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology
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“Crimes increase as education, opportunity, and property decrease. Whatever spreads ignorance, poverty and, discontent causes crime.... Criminals have their own responsibility, their own share of guilt, but they are merely the hand.... Whoever interferes with equal rights and equal opportunities is in some real degree, responsible for the crimes committed in the community.”

RealHandsOpportunityCausesCommunityResponsibilityPovertyRightsShareCrimeIgnoranceEqualDegreesIncreaseResponsibleGuiltPropertyCommittedSpreadCriminalsInterfereEqual RightsDiscontentDecreaseEqual Opportunity
Author:Rutherford B. Hayes
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“It is confidently expected that the period is at hand, when man, through ignorance, shall not much longer inflict unnecessary misery on man; because the mass of mankind will become enlightened, and will clearly discern that by so acting they will inevitably create misery to themselves.”

MenHandsActingMankindIgnorancePeriodsMassMiseryExpectedEnlightenedUnnecessary
Book:First American from the third London edition
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“The world is living today in what might be described as an era of carnality, which glorifies sex, hates restraint, identifies purity with coldness, innocence with ignorance, and turns men and women into Buddhas with their eyes closed, hands folded across their breasts, intently looking inward, thinking only of self.”

ThinkingMenWorldSelfHandsMightEyeTodayHateTurnsSexIgnoranceMen And WomenErasInnocencePurityBreastsInwardRestraintGlorifyColdnessCarnality
Author:Fulton J. Sheen
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“The pandering and ignorance-across-party-lines represented by the John McCain-Hillary Clinton united front for a temporary reduction in the gasoline tax should make Americans hold their heads in their hands and moan [...] Please. This is embarrassing. It makes me long for the good old days of debating about flag pins on the lapel.”

ShouldLongHandsLinesUnitedPartyFrontsIgnorancePleaseTaxesClintonTemporaryFlagsEmbarrassingPinsReductionOld DaysMccainGasolineGood Old DaysUnited Front
Author:James Fallows
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“Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be effective; and the running to spread the truth among such persons.”

WritingPersonsHandsRunningLyingWishFiveIgnoranceTruth IsSkillsJudgmentWeaponsOvercomingDifficultySpreadCombatManipulateSelectConcealedKeenness
Book:Galileo
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“Slavery is but half abolished, emancipation is but half completed, while millions of freemen with votes in their hands are left without education. Justice to them, the welfare of the States in which they live, the safety of the whole Republic, the dignity of the elective franchise, - all alike demand that the still remaining bonds of ignorance shall be unloosed and broken, and the minds as well as the bodies of the emancipated go free.”

MindWellsStillsStatesWholeBodyHandsLeftJusticeHalfMillionsIgnoranceBrokenDemandDignityVoteSafetySlaveryWelfareRepublicEmancipationFreeman
Book:Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions: 1878-1886
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“To act and act wisely when the time for action comes, to wait and wait patiently when it is time for repose, put man in accord with the rising and falling tides (of affairs). So that with nature and law at his back, and truth and beneficence as his beacon light, he may accomplish wonders. Ignorance of this law results in periods of unreasoning enthusiasm on the one hand, and depression on the other. Man thus becomes the victim of the tides when he should be their Master.”

MenShouldMayHandsLightTruthActionLawTimeFallWaitingChangeResultsWonderIgnoranceMastersPeriodsVictimAffairAccomplishEnthusiasmRisingTidesAccordReposeBeaconsBeneficence
Author:H. P. Blavatsky
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