474. Ignorance
"Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may be
properly charged with evil who refused to learn how he might
prevent it."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
Link
959. Corruption; Ignorance
"False taste is always busy to mislead those that are entering
upon the regions of learning; and the traveller, uncertain of
his way, and forsaken by the sun, will be pleased to see a
fainter orb arise on the horizon, that may rescue him from total
darkness, though with weak and borrowed lustre."
Johnson: Rambler #86 (January 12, 1751)
Link
1,210. Academia; Ignorance; Learning
(Practicality)
"Nothing has so exposed men of learning to contempt and ridicule
as their ignorance of things which are known to all but
themselves. Those who have been taught to consider the
institutions of the schools as giving the last perfection to
human abilities are surprised to see men wrinkled with study, yet
wanting to be instructed in the minute circumstances of
propriety, or the necessary form of daily transaction; and
quickly shake off their reverence for modes of education which
they find to produce no ability above the rest of mankind."
Johnson: Rambler #137 (July 9, 1751)
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