I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance.

Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. (1900 - 1965), retort to a heckler asking him to state his beliefs, Time, November 1, 1963

Not ignorance, but ignorance of ignorance, is the death of knowledge.

Alfred North Whitehead (1861 - 1947)

A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance.

Anatole France (1844 - 1924)

Ignorance never settles a question.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

To be conscious that you are ignorant is a great step to knowledge.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881), Sybil, 1845

Consistency¹ requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.

Bernard Berenson (1865 - 1959)

A little learning is a dangerous thing but a lot of ignorance is just as bad.

Bob Edwards

Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon and star.

Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)

Stupid is forever, ignorance can be fixed².

Don Wood

It is no good to try to stop knowledge from going forward. Ignorance is never better than knowledge.

Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954)

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which is least known.

Francis Jeffrey (1773 - 1850)

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him.

Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)

Ignorance gives one a large range of probabilities.

George Eliot (1819 - 1880)

It is better to confess ignorance than provide it.

Homer Hickam, The Coalwood Way

Ignorance of certain subjects is a great part of wisdom.

Hugo De Groot (1583 - 1645)

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)

My whole career can be summed up with 'Ignorance is bliss³.' When you do not know better, you do not really worry about failing.

Jeff Foxworthy

It is impossible to make people understand their ignorance; for it requires knowledge to perceive it and therefore he that can perceive it hath it not.

Jeremy Taylor (1613 - 1667)

Nothing is worse than active ignorance.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

Ignorance and inconsideration are the two great causes of the ruin of mankind.

John Tillotson (1630 - 1694)

Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.

Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - 2007)

Against logic⁴ there is no armor like ignorance.

Laurence J. Peter (1919 - 1988)

All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Letter to Mrs Foote, Dec. 2, 1887

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious⁵ stupidity.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), Strength to Love, 1963

We allow our ignorance to prevail upon us and make us think we can survive alone, alone in patches, alone in groups, alone in races, even alone in genders⁶.

Maya Angelou (1928 - )

It's innocence⁷ when it charms us, ignorance when it doesn't.

Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook

Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil.

Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)

Better be ignorant of a matter than half know it.

Publilius Syrus (~100 BC), Maxims⁸

There are many things of which a wise man might wish to be ignorant.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)