A Quote by Henry Ward Beecher

The most dangerous people are the ignorant.

Henry Ward Beecher

Quote Topics

Dangerous Ignorant Most People

Quote Author

Henry Ward Beecher
American - Priest
June 24, 1813 - March 8, 1887

Nothing is so dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is worth more. [Fr., Rien n'est si dangereux qu'un ignorant ami; Mieux vaudrait un sage ennemi.]

Jean de La Fontaine

Ignorant people in preppy clothes are more dangerous to America than oil embargoes.

V. S. Naipaul

All political theories assume, of course, that most individuals are very ignorant. Those who plead for liberty differ from the rest in that they include among the ignorant themselves as well as the wisest. Compared with the totality of knowledge which is continually utilized in the evolution of a dynamic civilization, the difference between the knowledge that the wisest and that the most ignorant individual can deliberately employ is comparatively insignificant.

Friedrich August von Hayek

Book CoverTo have people who are well informed but not constrained by conscience is conceivably, the most dangerous outcome of education possible. Indeed it could be argued that ignorance is better than unguided intelligence, for the most dangerous people are those who have knowledge without a moral framework.

Ernest L. Boyer

The real argument against aristocracy is that it always means the rule of the ignorant. For the most dangerous of all forms of ignorance is ignorance of work.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

People tend to think that hate is the most dangerous emotion. But love is equally dangerous,” Will said. “There are many stories of spirits haunting the places and people who meant the most to them. In fact, there are more of those than there are revenge stories.

Libba Bray

Censorship, I believe, is the most dangerous enemy to all human communication, and piety of intention is probably the most dangerous, the most virulent and the most self-satisfying.

Chuck Jones

Compared with the person who is conscious of his despair, the despairing individual who is ignorant of his despair is simply a negativity further away from the truth and deliverance. . . . Yet ignorance is so far from breaking the despair or changing despair to nondespairing that it can in fact be the most dangerous form of despair. . . . An individual is furthest from being conscious of himself as spirit when he is ignorant of being in despair. But precisely this-not to be conscious of oneself as spirit-is despair, which is spiritlessness. . . .

Soren Kierkegaard

I want everybody to be smart. As smart as they can be. A world of ignorant people is too dangerous to live in.

Garson Kanin

It is of dangerous consequence to represent to man how near he is to the level of beasts, without showing him at the same time his greatness. It is likewise dangerous to let him see his greatness without his meanness. It is more dangerous yet to leave him ignorant of either; but very beneficial that he should be made sensible of both.

Blaise Pascal

People with strong breeds are trying to be in control because their dog is labeled as aggressive or dangerous. That tells us how ignorant we are even though we love dogs.

Cesar Millan

The logic of all this seems to be that it is all right for young people in a democracy to learn about any civilization or social theory that is not dangerous, but that they should remain entirely ignorant of any civilization or social theory that might be dangerous on the ground that what you don't know can't hurt you ... a complete denial of the democratic principle that the general diffusion of knowledge and learning through the community is essential to the preservation of free government.