Aphorisms Galore!

Wisdom and Ignorance

327 aphorisms  ·  10 comments

Aphorisms in This Category

tiny.ag/k0emebpg  ·  submitted 2011 by peter

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.

Neil Postman, in Wisdom and Ignorance and Law and Politics

tiny.ag/o4053hxu  ·  submitted 1997

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction.

E. F. Schumacher, in Science and Religion and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/dyhkrulm  ·  submitted 1997

Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again.

Delmore Schwartz, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/r0a9zwmr  ·  submitted 1997

In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/byjgwlzg  ·  submitted 1997

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.

Mark Twain, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/uvmow3r4  ·  submitted 1997

Wit is the only wall between us and the dark.

Mark Van Doren, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/svogwyfm  ·  submitted 1997

Everyone is born with genius, but most people only keep it a few minutes.

Edgard Varese, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/t9jmvbpa  ·  submitted 1997

A witty saying proves nothing.

Voltaire, in Success and Failure and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/hcrgr6oa  ·  submitted 1997

Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung.

Voltaire, in Art and Literature and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/kteay1fd  ·  submitted 1997

Life happens too fast for you ever to think about it. If you could just persuade people of this, but they insist on amassing information.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/w4crozj1  ·  submitted 1997

Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking.

John Maynard Keynes, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/jp6bkest  ·  submitted 1997

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

John F. Kennedy, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/knhyutua  ·  submitted 1997

Our progress as a nation can be no swifter than our progress in education.

John F. Kennedy, in Law and Politics and Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/kgnpd9wc  ·  submitted 1998

Even thinking is participation.

Lassi Kämäri, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/oayda2mh  ·  submitted 1997

Truth springs from argument amongst friends.

David Hume, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/q7oo4vdf  ·  submitted 1997

He who opens a school door, closes a prison.

Victor Hugo, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/st9mqgf5  ·  submitted 1997

College isn't the place to go for ideas.

Helen Keller, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/pojc3ikm  ·  submitted 1997

Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you.

Carl Gustav Jung, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/d3ttj2ag  ·  submitted 1997

You can lead a boy to college, but you cannot make him think.

Elbert Hubbard, in Wisdom and Ignorance

tiny.ag/vjcm5iep  ·  submitted 1997

Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.

Samuel Johnson, in Vice and Virtue and Wisdom and Ignorance