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Ignorance Quotes

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Ignorance Quotes

“On the country has gathered the idea of a natural way of life: of peace, innocence, and simple virtue. On the city has gathered the idea of an achieved centre of learning, communication, light. Powerful hostile associations have also developed: on the city as a place of noise, worldliness and ambition; on the country as a place of backwardness, ignorance, limitation. A contrast between country and city, as fundamental ways of life, reaches back into classical times.”

WayIdeasCountryLightNaturalSimplePowerfulCitiesVirtueIgnoranceCommunicationAmbitionFundamentalsNoiseLimitationInnocenceAssociationContrastCentreHostileWorldliness
Book:The Country and the City
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“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

MenPhilosophyCharacterPoliticalPoliticsMoralVirtueModernHonestyIgnorancePoliticianMoralityExerciseIntegrityClimate ChangeConservativeSelfishSuperiorsSelfishnessEngagedLiberalismJustificationConservatismMoral PhilosophySelf JustificationAnti ConservativeModern PhilosophyModern PoliticsConservative Political
Author:John Kenneth Galbraith
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“I know, that since life is our most precious gift, and as far as we can be absolutely certain, it's given to us to live but once, let us so live we will not regret years of useless virtue, and inertia, and timidity, and ignorance, and in our last moments we can say: 'All my life, all my conscious energies, have been dedicated to the most noble cause in the world, the liberation of the human mind and spirit - beginning with my own'.”

KnowsWorldYearsMindHumansHas BeensMomentsLastsLife IsSpiritCertainEnergyGivenCausesMy OwnVirtueIgnoranceRegretConsciousNobleLiberationUselessHuman MindDedicatedInertiaTimidityPrecious GiftsNoble Causes
Author:Maya Angelou
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“Every time that a people which has long crouched in slavery and ignorance is moved to its lowest depths there appear monsters and heroes, prodigies of crime and prodigies of virtue.”

PeopleLongVirtueProgressCrimeIgnoranceHeroSlaveryMovedDepthMonstersLowestProdigies
Book:History of the Girondists: Or, Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution. From Unpublished Sources
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“the leading error of the human mind, - the bane of human happiness - the perverter of human virtue ... is Religion - that dark coinage of trembling ignorance! It is Religion - that poisoner of human felicity! It is Religion - that blind guide of human reason! It is Religion - that dethroner of human virtue! which lies at the root of all the evil and all the misery that pervade the world!”

WorldMindHumansReasonLyingEvilDarkVirtueIgnoranceRootsBlindMiseryErrorsGuidesHuman MindTremblingFelicityBaneHuman HappinessHuman ReasonPoisoners
Author:Frances Wright
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“Like language, a code of manners can be used with more or less skill, for laudable or for evil purposes, to express a great variety of ideas and emotions. In itself, it carries no moral value, but ignorance in use of this tool is not a sign of virtue.”

IdeasUseUsedPurposeValuesEvilLanguageEmotionMoralVirtueIgnoranceSkillsToolsVarietyMannersCodeCarrieMoral Values
Book:Common courtesy: in which Miss Manners solves the problem that baffled Mr. Jefferson
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“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.”

VirtueToo MuchProgressIgnoranceHighestVicesInstanceCompanionInseparableBarbarism
Book:The Law of Human Progress: An Oration Before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Union College, Schenectady. July 25th, 1848
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“Intelligence is derived from two words - inter and legere - inter meaning 'between' and legere meaning 'to choose'. An intelligent person, therefore, is one who has learned 'to choose between'. He knows that good is better than evil, that confidence should supersede fear, that love is superior to hate, that gentleness is better than cruelty, forbearance than intolerance, compassion than arrogance, and that truth has more virtue than ignorance.”

KnowsShouldPersonsTwoHateEvilLove IsCompassionVirtueIgnoranceIntelligentIntelligenceSuperiorsCrueltyArroganceIntoleranceGentlenessForbearanceIntelligent Person
Author:J. Martin Klotsche
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“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.”

ThinkingGivingShouldLooksWealthRoomsVirtueConditionsIgnoranceQuietFortunePrivilegeVicesRichesCirclesFreakFlatteryModeratesSuccessionHazardsCaprice
Book:The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752
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“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.”

PeopleIfsMindStillsSeemsGovernmentSilenceMoralVirtueAtheismDangerousIgnoranceVicesWorthyPositive AtheismDiscussionSuperstitionsReignBarbarismGrotesqueSubmergedGroaningGood Mind
Author:Denis Diderot
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“There can be no truly moral choice unless that choice is made in freedom; similarly, there can be no really firmly grounded and consistent defense of freedom unless that defense is rooted in moral principle. In concentrating on the ends of choice, the conservative, by neglecting the conditions of choice, loses that very morality of conduct with which he is so concerned. And the libertarian, by concentrating only on the means, or conditions, of choice and ignoring the ends, throws away an essential moral defense of his own position.”

MeanMadeEndsChoicesLosesFreedomResponsibilityLibertyMoralPrinciplesVirtueConditionsPositionIgnoranceMoralityEssentialsConcernedConservativeDefenseLibertarianConsistentNeglectRootedGroundedConcentratingMoral PrinciplesMoral Choices
Author:Murray Rothbard
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“Among the innumerable mortifications which waylay human arrogance on every side may well be reckoned our ignorance of the most common objects and effects, a defect of which we become more sensible by every attempt to supply it. Vulgar and inactive minds confound familiarity with knowledge and conceive themselves informed of the whole nature of things when they are shown their form or told their use; but the speculatist, who is not content with superficial views, harasses himself with fruitless curiosity, and still, as he inquires more, perceives only that he knows less.”

KnowsMindHumansWellsMayStillsReasonWholeUseTruthFormPeaceSidesViewsCommonEducationKnowledgeVirtueEffectsObjectsIgnoranceCuriosityPerceiveArroganceSensibleSuperficialDefectsVulgarFamiliarityMortification
Author:Samuel Johnson
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“All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.”

WantAmericaNatureMoneyVirtueIgnoranceHonorCapitalismConstitutionCreditAriseConfusionPatrioticFoundersDistressDefectsCoinsFoundingBankingBankersOur Founding FathersCirculationUs Founding FathersFounding Fathers Of AmericaEconomic FreedomPerplexityCentral BankingConfederationFlipping A Coin
Author:John Adams
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“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.”

KnowsMenRealSoulWholeVirtueClearIgnoranceGoodnessClaimsBlindVicesIgnorantFancyMurdererPlagueIncorrigible
Book:The Plague
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“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.”

ThinkingWellsMayLittlesLongRealSinTeachVirtueIgnorancePureVicesConnectedInnocentTemptationSinnerExposedRestraintViciousDestitute
Book:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
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“...only we don't call it 'ignorance', we call it 'faith'. What a horrible little word that is - faith - exuding as it does its fake aura of purity and virtue while fronting some of the ugliest ideas this planet has ever seen. Closing people's hearts when it should be opening them. Making them proud of things they should be ashamed of. And ashamed of things they should be proud of.”

PeopleShouldHeartLittlesDoeIdeasFearVirtueAtheismIgnorancePlanetsProudRageHorribleOpeningFakePurityAshamedBe ProudClosingAuras
Author:Pat Condell
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