Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

Ignorance per se is not nearly as dangerous as ignorance of ignorance.

I would rather be ignorant than knowledgeable of evils.

The less you know, the more you believe.

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.

To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant.

Most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don't know because we don't want to know.

Ignorance is not bliss — it is oblivion. Determined ignorance is the hastiest kind of oblivion.

It’s much easier not to know things sometimes.

He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and this pretension itself is a very great prejudice.

The less people know, the more stubbornly they know it.

I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing!

Sometimes it takes more courage not to let yourself see. Sometimes knowledge is damaging - not enlightenment but enleadenment.

There's none so blind as they that won't see.

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

Ignorance ... is a painless evil; so, I should think, is dirt, considering the merry faces that go along with it.

Her least favorite thing: VOLUNTARY IGNORANCE

I don't want to live in a world where I just kind of play on my naïveté - well if I don't know it, then it doesn't exist.

People have opinions but no knowledge.

That is just the way it is with some people. They will get down on a thing when they don’t know nothing about it.

In some ways, my naivete saved me.

Ignorance is not bliss. It is the kiss of death.

Ignorance is not stupidity, but it might as well be. And I do not like feeling stupid.

Only ignorance! only ignorance! how can you talk about only ignorance? Don't you know that it is the worst thing in the world, next to wickedness? -- and which does the most mischief heaven only knows. If people can say, 'Oh! I did not know, I did not mean any harm,' they think it is all right.

Ignorance is not bad faith. But persistence in ignorance is.