A Quote by Sydney Smith

Have the courage to be ignorant of a great number of things, in order to avoid the calamity of being ignorant of everything.

Sydney Smith

Quote Topics

Courage Avoid Being Being Ignorant Calamity Everything Great Ignorant Number Order Things

Quote Author

Sydney Smith
English - Priest
June 3, 1771 - February 22, 1845

To be ignorant and to be deceived are two different things. To be ignorant is to be a slave of the world. To be deceived is to be the slave of another man. The question will always be: Why, when all men are ignorant, and therefore already slaves, does this latter slavery sting us so?

R. Scott Bakker

One can't understand everything at once, we can't begin with perfection all at once! In order to reach perfection one must begin by being ignorant of a great deal. And if we understand things too quickly, perhaps we shan't understand them thoroughly.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Without willing it, I had gone from being ignorant of being ignorant to being aware of being aware. And the worst part of my awareness was that I didn't know what I was aware of. I knew I knew very little, but I was certain that the things I had yet to learn wouldn't be taught to me at George Washington High School.

Maya Angelou

It is not so bad being ignorant if you are totally ignorant; the hard thing is knowing in some detail the reality of ignorance.

Lewis Thomas

He stared at his feet. “I’m still very ignorant,” he said, “but at least I’m ignorant about really important things.

Terry Pratchett

We are all ignorant. We are just ignorant about different things.

Will Rogers

One of the great things about being ignorant is that I often think my ideas are original. It's a wonderful feeling. That's why I try to avoid any knowledge that would spoil the sensation. Sometimes it isn't easy. People keep hurling knowledge at me, and I can't always duck.

Scott Adams

Ignorant have always the tendency to see the donkey as the noble horse, to see the pig as the lion! Ignore the judgements of the ignorant, because ignorant makes the ant elephant; he declares the stupid as the intelligent; he carries the silly on his shoulders!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

There is an ancient script that says, 'He that wishes to be ignorant, let him be ignorant.' But I took off the last word and it now reads for me like this: He that wishes to be ignorant, let him be!

Jim Rohn

How can people be so stupid? I marvel at that. See, I think you have to work as being ignorant - and if you're gonna work at being ignorant, why not work at being informed?

Rush Limbaugh

Neglect of mathematics work injury to all knowledge, since he who is ignorant of it cannot know the other sciences or things of this world. And what is worst, those who are thus ignorant are unable to perceive their own ignorance, and so do not seek a remedy.

Roger Bacon

If I can avoid the mirror when I brush my teeth in the morning, I will. I find security and safety in the most profound degree of ignorance. If you can just stay ignorant of almost everything you'll be OK. It's fine to stay informed and look at things, but to judge things will bog you down.

Johnny Depp

White people’s number one freedom, in the United States of America, is the freedom to be totally ignorant of those who are other than white. We don’t have to learn about those who are other than white. And our number two freedom is the freedom to deny that we’re ignorant.

Jane Elliott

I was kind of ignorant. Being naive - 'who cares, how many people in the world, okay, my vote won't count' - that's kind of ignorant thinking, and I totally migrated from that. I clearly took that for granted for eight to 10 years.