Coventry Patmore Quotes

He who replies to words of doubt doth put the light of knowledge out.

Ignorance never settles a question.

The truth is perilous never to the true, Nor knowledge to the wise; and to the fool, And to the false, error and truth alike, Error is worse than ignorance.

My proof convinces the ignorant, and the wise man's proof convinces me. But he whose reasoning falls between wisdom and ignorance, I neither can convince him, nor can he convince me.

Even if a fool lived with a wise man all his life, he would still not recognise the truth, like a wooden spoon cannot recognise the flavour of the soup.

In examinations the foolish ask questions that the wise cannot answer.

He who thinks with difficulty believes with alacrity. A fool is a natural proselyte, but he must be caught young, for his convictions, unlike those of the wise, harden with age.

The people I go after are the false experts, those who do not accept the limits of their knowledge.

Without education we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously.

A wit with dunces, and a dunce with wits.

Getting rid of a delusion makes us wiser than getting hold of a truth.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

There are few earthly things more beautiful than a university a place where those who hate ignorance may strive to know, where those who perceive truth may strive to make others see.

To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool, a solution.

I believe that ignorance is the root of all evil. And that no one knows the truth.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.

It is always better to have no ideas than false ones; to believe nothing, than to believe what is wrong.

I wonder whether if I had an education I should have been more or less a fool that I am.

Once you start asking questions, innocence is gone.

Controversy equalizes fools and wise men in the same way - and the fools know it.

Education is a crutch with which the foolish attack the wise to prove that they are not idiots.

It takes a lot of things to prove you are smart, but only one thing to prove you are ignorant.

Who knows most, doubts most.

The will to be stupid is a very powerful force, but there are always alternatives.