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Henry David Thoreau Quotes about Ignorance

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Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

Ignorance and bungling with love are better than wisdom and skill without.

Henry David Thoreau
Love, Ignorance, Skills
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2131, Delphi Classics

A man is wise with the wisdom of his time only, and ignorant with its ignorance.

Henry David Thoreau
Wise, Wisdom, Ignorance
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.109, BookBaby

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

Henry David Thoreau
Friendship, Best Friend, Ignorance
Henry David Thoreau (2001). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.182, Courier Corporation

Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them.

Henry David Thoreau
Country, Mistake, Ignorance
Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.156, Penguin

How can we remember our ignorance, which our growth requires, when we are using our knowledge all the time?

Henry David Thoreau
Ignorance, Growth, Remember

The only sin in the world is ignorance.

Henry David Thoreau
Ignorance, World, Sin

A man’s ignorance sometimes is not only useful, but beautiful - while his knowledge, so called, is oftentimes worse than useless, besides being ugly. Which is the best man to deal with - he who knows nothing about a subject, and, what is extremely rare, knows that he knows nothing, or he who really knows something about it, but thinks that he knows all?

Henry David Thoreau
Beautiful, Ignorance, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Excursions and Poems: The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, Volume V (of 20)”, p.147, Prabhat Prakashan

We have heard of a Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. It is said that knowledge is power, and the like. Methinks there is equal need of a Society for the Diffusion of Useful Ignorance, what we will call Beautiful Knowledge, a knowledge useful in a higher sense: for what is most of our boasted so-called knowledge but a conceit that we know something, which robs us of the advantage of our actual ignorance? What we call knowledge is often our positive ignorance; ignorance our negative knowledge.

Henry David Thoreau
Beautiful, Ignorance, Negative
Henry David Thoreau (2000). “Walden and Other Writings: (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.669, Modern Library

The greatest and saddest defect is not credulity, but an habitual forgetfulness that our science is ignorance.

Henry David Thoreau
Ignorance, Forgetfulness, Defects
Henry David Thoreau, Odell Shepard (1961). “The Heart of Thoreau's Journals”, p.214, Courier Corporation

If it is necessary, omit one bridge over the river, go round a little there, and throw one arch at least over the darker gulf of ignorance which surrounds us.

Henry David Thoreau
Ignorance, Bridges, Rivers
Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.72, Cosimo, Inc.

From exertion come wisdom and purity; from sloth ignorance and sensuality.

Henry David Thoreau
Wisdom, Ignorance, Sloth
Henry David Thoreau (2010). “Walden”, p.205, Bibliolis Books

There is a chasm between knowledge and ignorance which the arches of science can never span.

Henry David Thoreau
Ignorance, Knowledge, Science
Henry David Thoreau (2016). “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”, p.68, Xist Publishing

The child should have the advantage of ignorance as well as of knowledge, and is fortunate if he gets his share of neglect and exposure.

Henry David Thoreau
Education, Children, Ignorance
Henry David Thoreau (1999). “Uncommon Learning: Thoreau on Education”, p.65, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The savage lives simply through ignorance and idleness or laziness, but the philosopher lives simply through wisdom.

Henry David Thoreau
Ignorance, Simplicity, Savages
Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.113, David M Gross

A man's ignorance sometimes is not only useful, but beautiful-while his knowledge, so called, is oftentimes worse than useless, besides being ugly.

Henry David Thoreau
Beautiful, Ignorance, Men
Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.361, Simon and Schuster

Prominent and influential editors, accustomed to deal with politicians, men of an infinitely lower grade, say, in their ignorance,that he acted "on the principle of revenge." They do not know the man. They must enlarge themselves to conceive of him.... They have got to conceive of a man of faith and of religious principle, and not a politician or an Indian; of a man who did not wait till he was personally interfered with or thwarted in some harmless business before he gave his life to the cause of the oppressed.

Henry David Thoreau
Religious, Revenge, Ignorance
Henry David Thoreau (2007). “My Thoughts Are Murder to the State: Thoreau's Essays on Political Philosophy”, p.47, David M Gross

How can he remember well his ignorance - which his growth requires - who has so often to use his knowledge?

Henry David Thoreau
Ignorance, Growth, Use
Henry David Thoreau (2015). “Walden”, p.15, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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