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Ignorance Quotes

Browse 4419 quotes about Ignorance.

Ignorance Quotes

“If a [democratic] society displays less brilliance than an aristocracy, there will also be less wretchedness; pleasures will be less outrageous and wellbeing will be shared by all; the sciences will be on a smaller scale but ignorance will be less common; opinions will be less vigorous and habits gentler; you will notice more vices and fewer crimes.”

Ifs Pleasure Common Opinion Crime Ignorance Habit Democratic Vices Scales Fewer Display Brilliance Outrageous Wellbeing Vigorous Aristocracy Democratic Society Wretchedness

Author:Alexis de Tocqueville

“Forts, arsenals, garrisons, armies, navies, are means of security and defence, which were invented in half-civilized times and in feudal or despotic countries; but schoolhouses are the republican line of fortifications, and if they are dismantled and dilapidated, ignorance and vice will pour in their legions through every breach.”

Ifs Mean Country Lines Half Security Ignorance Republican Army Vices Civilized Navy Defence Arsenal Legion Breach Forts Army Navy Fortification

Book:Common School Journal

Source: Common School Journal

“The greatest slave is not he who is ruled by a despot, great though that evil be, but he who is in the thrall of his own moral ignorance, selfishness, and vice.”

Evil Moral Ignorance Slave Vices Selfishness Despots

Book:Self-help; with Illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance

Source: Self-help; with Illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance

“Women who are the least bashful are not unfrequently the most modest; and we are never more deceived than when we would infer any laxity of principle from that freedom of demeanor which often arises from a total ignorance of vice.”

Principles Ignorance Vices Arise Modest Deceived Demeanor Bashful Bashfulness

Book:Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think

Source: Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think

“Incivility is not a Vice of the Soul, but the effect of several Vices; of Vanity, Ignorance of Duty, Laziness, Stupidity, Distraction, Contempt of others, and Jealousy.”

Soul Character Effects Ignorance Duty Vices Stupidity Vanity Contempt Distraction Laziness Incivility

Author:Jean de la Bruyere

“Slavery is the parent of ignorance, and ignorance begets a whole brood of follies and vices; and every one of these is inevitably hostile to literary culture.”

Whole Culture Parent Ignorance Slavery Vices Folly Hostile Begets

Book:The impending crisis of the South: how to meet it

Source: The impending crisis of the South: how to meet it

“Without knowledge there can be no sure progress. Vice and barbarism are the inseparable companions of ignorance. Nor is it too much to say that, except in rare instances, the highest virtue is attained only through intelligence.”

Virtue Too Much Progress Ignorance Highest Vices Instance Companion Inseparable Barbarism

Book:The Law of Human Progress: An Oration Before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College, Schenectady. July 25th, 1848

Source: The Law of Human Progress: An Oration Before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College, Schenectady. July 25th, 1848

“There are two kinds of disease of the soul, vice and ignorance.”

Kind Two Soul Ignorance Disease Vices

Author:Socrates

“Ignorance of true pleasure more frequently than temptation to that which is false, leads to vice.”

Pleasure Ignorance Vices Temptation

Book:The romance of the forest, by the authoress of 'A Sicilian romance'.

Source: The romance of the forest, by the authoress of 'A Sicilian romance'.

“Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up.”

Ignorance Foundation Lays Vices Customs Imitation

Book:A Serious Proposal to the Ladies

Source: A Serious Proposal to the Ladies

“Whosoever shall look heedfully upon those who are eminent for their riches will not think their condition such as that he should hazard his quiet, and much less his virtue, to obtain it, for all that great wealth generally gives above a moderate fortune is more room for the freaks of caprice, and more privilege for ignorance and vice, a quicker succession of flatteries, and a larger circle of voluptuousness.”

Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

“It seems to me that if one had kept silence up to now regarding religion, people would still be submerged in the most grotesque and dangerous superstition ... regarding government, we would still be groaning under the bonds of feudal government ... regarding morals, we would still be having to learn what is virtue and what is vice. To forbid all these discussions, the only ones worthy of occupying a good mind, is to perpetuate the reign of ignorance and barbarism.”

“A happy people I call them still, whose peace and genuine morals have not been contaminated with European vices; and whose errorsare only the errors of ignorance, and not the rooted depravity of a pretended civilization, and a spurious and mock Christianity.”

People Stills Moral Christianity Ignorance Civilization Errors Vices Genuine Rooted Mock Depravity Happy People

Book:Narrative, of a Five Years' Expedition, Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; from the Year 1772, to 1777:: Elucidating the History of that Country, and Describing Its Productions, ... with an Account of the Indians of Guiana, & Negroes of Guinea

Source: Narrative, of a Five Years' Expedition, Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, in Guiana, on the Wild Coast of South America; from the Year 1772, to 1777:: Elucidating the History of that Country, and Describing Its Productions, ... with an Account of the Indians of Guiana, & Negroes of Guinea

“Ignorance, far more than idleness, is the mother of all the vices; and how recent has been the admission, that knowledge should be the portion of all? The destinies of the future lie in judicious education; an education that must be universal, to be beneficial.”

Should Has Beens Lying Mother Education Destiny Ignorance Universal Vices Portions Idleness Beneficial Admission

Book:Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides ...

Source: Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides ...

“Cruelty to dumb animals is one of the distinguishing vices of low and base minds. Wherever it is found, it is a certain mark of ignorance and meanness; a mark which all the external advantages of wealth, splendour, and nobility, cannot obliterate. It is consistent neither with learning nor true civility.”

“All men's instincts, all their impulses in life, are efforts to increase their freedom. Wealth and poverty, health and disease, culture and ignorance, labor and leisure, repletion and hunger, virtue and vice, are all terms for greater or less degree of freedom.”

Men Culture Term Wealth Effort Poverty Virtue Greater Ignorance Disease Degrees Labor Increase Instinct Hunger Vices Impulse Leisure Wealth And Poverty

Book:War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

“On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn't the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.”

Knows Men Real Soul Whole Virtue Clear Ignorance Goodness Claims Blind Vices Ignorant Fancy Murderer Plague Incorrigible

Book:The Plague

Source: The Plague

“Man's basic vice, the source of all his evils, is the act of unfocusing his mind, the suspension of his consciousness, which is not blindness, but the refusal to see, not ignorance, but the refusal to know.”

Knows Men Mind Evil Consciousness Seeing Ignorance Source Vices Blindness Refusal Suspension

Book:The Virtue of Selfishness

Source: The Virtue of Selfishness

“Well, but you affirm that virtue is only elicited by temptation; - and you think that a woman cannot be too little exposed to temptation, or too little acquainted with vice, or anything connected therewith - It must be, either, that you think she is essentially so vicious, or so feeble-minded that she cannot withstand temptation, - and though she may be pure and innocent as long as she is kept in ignorance and restraint, yet, being destitute of real virtue, to teach her how to sin is at once to make her a sinner.”

Thinking Wells May Littles Long Real Sin Teach Virtue Ignorance Pure Vices Connected Innocent Temptation Sinner Exposed Restraint Vicious Destitute

Book:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“In other living creatures the ignorance of themselves is nature, but in men it is a vice.”

Men Ignorance Confidence Creatures Self Awareness Vices Living Creatures

Book:Boethius Collection [2 Books]

Source: Boethius Collection [2 Books]

“Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sign of ignorance and brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and luxury.”

“Even in Europe a change has sensibly taken place in the mind of man. Science has liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the American example has kindled feelings of right in the people. An insurrection has consequently begun of science talents and courage against rank and birth, which have fallen into contempt. It has failed in its first effort, because the mobs of the cities, the instrument used for its accomplishment, debased by ignorance, poverty and vice, could not be restrained to rational action. But the world will soon recover from the panic of this first catastrophe.”

Source: The portable Thomas Jefferson