James Fenimore Cooper Quotes

The bulk of mankind, even in those nations which are most celebrated for learning and wisdom, are still carried down the torrents of superstition, and entertain very unworthy apprehensions

The less you know, the more you believe.

The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.

Finding that no religion is based on facts and cannot be true, I began to reflect what must be the condition of mankind trained from infancy to believe in error.

Ignorance is the mother of suspicion.

Public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice

The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so.

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

When people don't get enough information, they make it up.

He who knows all things and believes nothing is damned.

It ain't ignorance that causes all the trouble in this world. It's the things people know that ain't so.

Creeds made in Dark Ages are like drawings made in dark rooms.

Lack of knowledge... that is the problem.

Paranoia is just another word for ignorance.

The reason there's so much ignorance is that those who have it are so eager to share it.

Now I believe I can hear the philosophers protesting that it can only be misery to live in folly, illusion, deception and ignorance, but it isn't -it's human.

Ignorance breeds fear.

The wretched world lies now under the tyranny of foolishness; things [witches and witchcraft] are believed by Christians of such absurdity as no one ever could aforetime induce the heathen to believe.

All the Khmer leaders and nobles, all the district chiefs and all the common people are ignorant, stupid, foolish and gullible. They have no idea what is true and what is false.

The longer you hold a belief, the less likely it is to be true.

It is better to be ignorant than to half know something.

It's not what you don't know that kills you but what you know that isn't so.

Superstition is our great enemy, but bigotry is worse.

A misconception remains a misconception, even when it is shared by the majority of people.