Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Related Quotes

William Shakespeare

And seeing ignorance is the curse of God, knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

God | Heaven | Ignorance | Knowledge |

Tom Brown, Jr.

Man is like an island, a circle within circles. Man is separated from these outer circles by his mind, his beliefs, and the limitations put upon him by a life away from the Earth. The circle of man, the island of self, is the place of logic, the ‘I,’ the ego, and the physical self. That is the island that man has chosen to live within today, and in doing so he has created a prison for himself. The walls of the island prison are thick, made up of doubts, logic and lack of belief. His isolation from his greater circles of self is suffocating and prevents him from seeing life clearly and purely. It is a world of ignorance where the flesh is the only reality, the only god... Beyond man’s island of ego, his prison, lies the world of the spirit-that-moves-in-all-things, the force that is found in all things. It is a world that communicates to all entities of Creation and touches the creator. It is a circle of life that houses all man’s instinct, his deepest memory, his power to control his body and mind, and a bridge that helps man transcend flesh. It is a world that expands man’s universe and helps him to fuse himself to the earth. Most of all, it is a world that brings man to his higher self and to spiritual rapture.

Belief | Body | Control | Earth | Ego | Force | God | Ignorance | Instinct | Isolation | Life | Life | Logic | Man | Memory | Mind | Power | Prison | Reality | Self | Spirit | Universe | World |

William Hazlitt

Wonder at the first sign of works of art may be the effect of ignorance and novelty; but real admiration and permanent delight in them are the growth of taste and knowledge.

Admiration | Art | Growth | Ignorance | Knowledge | Novelty | Taste | Wonder | Art |

Bertrand Russell, fully Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell

Right conduct can never, except by some rare accident, be promoted by ignorance or hindered by knowledge.

Accident | Conduct | Ignorance | Knowledge | Right |

Edwin Herbert Land

Ordinarily when we talk about the human as the advanced product of evolution and the mind as being the most advanced product of evolution, there is an implication that we are advanced out of and away from the structure of the exterior world in which we have evolved, as if a separate product had been packaged, wrapped up, and delivered from a production line. The view I am presenting proposes a mechanism more and more interlocked with the totality of the exterior. This mechanism has no separate existence at all, being in a thousand ways united with and continuously interacting with the whole exterior domain. In fact there is no exterior red object with a tremendous mind linked to it by only a ray of light. The red object is a composite product of matter and mechanism evolved in permanent association with a most elaborate interlock. There is no tremor in what we call the "outside world" that is not locked by a thousand chains and gossamers to inner structures that vibrate and move with it and are a part of it. The reason for the painfulness of all philosophy is that in the past, in its necessary ignorance of the unbelievable domains of partnership that have evolved in the relationship between ourselves and the world around us, it dealt with what indeed have been a tragic separation and isolation. Of what meaning is the world without mind? The question cannot exist.

Association | Evolution | Existence | Ignorance | Meaning | Mind | Object | Philosophy | Question | Reason | Relationship | World | Association |

Edward de Bono

In a sense, words are encyclopedias of ignorance because they freeze perceptions at one moment in history and then insist we continue to use these frozen perceptions when we should be doing better.

History | Ignorance | Words |

Ezra Pound, fully Ezra Weston Loomis Pound

The inexperienced teacher, fearing his own ignorance, is afraid to admit it. Perhaps that courage only come when one knows to what extent ignorance is almost universal.

Courage | Ignorance | Afraid |

Gary Snyder

As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth . . . the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth, the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe. I try to hold both history and the wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times.

Earth | Ecstasy | History | Ignorance | Love | Magic | Work |

Gustave Flaubert

Here is true immorality: ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this.

Devil | Ignorance | Nothing |

Helen Keller. aka Helen Adams Keller

It is a mistake always to contemplate the good and ignore the evil, because by making people neglectful it lets in disaster. There is a dangerous optimism of ignorance and indifference.

Good | Ignorance | Mistake | Optimism | People |

Isaac Asimov, born Isaak Yudovich Ozimov

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

Ignorance | Knowledge |

Helen Keller. aka Helen Adams Keller

Every optimist moves along with progress and hastens it, while every pessimist would keep the worlds at a standstill. The consequence of pessimism in the life of a nation is the same as in the life of the individual. Pessimism kills the instinct that urges men to struggle against poverty, ignorance and crime, and dries up all the fountains of joy in the world.

Ignorance | Instinct | Joy | Life | Life | Men | Pessimism | Progress | Struggle |

Henry Adams, aka Henry Brooks Adams

For after all, man knows mighty little, and may some day learn enough of his own ignorance to fall down again and pray.

Day | Enough | Ignorance | Man | Learn |

Hyman George Rickover

Responsibility is a unique concept... You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you... If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible.

Blame | Ignorance | Man | Responsibility | Unique |

Henri Frédéric Amiel

Man never knows what he wants; he aspires to penetrate mysteries as soon as he has, he wants to reestablish them. Ignorance irritates him and knowledge cloys.

Ignorance | Knowledge | Wants |