Historical Ignorance Quotes

Backward is just not a natural direction for Americans to look - historical ignorance remains a national characteristic. ~ Larry McMurtry

Many people today think that the Tea Act - which led to the Boston Tea Party - was simply an increase in the taxes on tea paid by the American colonists. That's where the whole "Taxation Without Representation" meme came from.

Instead, the purpose of the Tea Act was to give the East India Company full and unlimited access to the American tea trade and to exempt the company from having to pay taxes to Britain on tea exported to the American colonies. It even gave the company a tax refund on millions of pounds of tea that it was unable to sell and holding in inventory.

In other words, the Tea Act was the largest corporate tax break in the history of the world. ~ Thom Hartmann

I can honestly say that there are many forms of atheism that I find far more admirable than many forms of Christianity or of religion in general. But atheism that consists entirely in vacuous arguments afloat on oceans of historical ignorance, made turbulent by storms of strident self-righteousness, is as contemptible as any other form of dreary fundamentalism. And it is sometimes difficult, frankly, to be perfectly generous in one's response to the sort of invective currently fashionable among the devoutly undevout, or to the sort of historical misrepresentations it typically involves. ~ David Bentley Hart

A recurrent theme in Kissinger's early writing is the historical ignorance of the typical American decision-maker. Lawyers, he remarked in 1968, are the "single most important group in Government, but they do have this drawback - a deficiency in history." For Kissinger, history was doubly important: as a source of illuminating analogies and as the defining factor in national self-understanding. Americans might doubt history's importance, but, as Kissinger wrote, "Europeans, living on a continent covered with ruins testifying to the fallibility of human foresight, feel in their bones that history is more complicated than systems analysis."
-Foreign Affairs, The Meaning of Kissinger: A Realist Reconsidered, By Niall Ferguson ~ Niall Ferguson

I suspect people would be in for a real shock if they knew the depths of [Obama's] historical ignorance. ~ Charles Foster Johnson

The knowledge and reason speak, ignorance and error shout. ~ Arturo Graf

[It is] a historic step toward eliminating the shameful practice of racial discrimination in the selection of juries. ~ Thurgood Marshall

Both sides' was a rhetorical weapon used by hypocrites and the ignorant. ~ F.C. Yee

Until we find an antidote to our ignorance, our purpose shall always be hindered by ignorance ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Why would I what?" Will asked, wanting another bite of his burger. "Why would you risk your job teaching some stupid fantasy book?" "Because alternative universe literature promotes critical thinking, imagination, empathy, and creative problem solving. Children who are fluent in fiction are more able to interpret nonfiction and are better at understanding things like basic cause and effect, sociology, politics, and the impact of historical events on current events. Many of our technological advances were imagined by science fiction writers before the tech became available to create them, and many of today's inventors were inspired by science fiction and fantasy to make a world more like the world in the story. Many of today's political conundrums were anticipated by science fiction writers like Orwell, Huxley, and Heinlein, and sci-fi and fantasy tackle ethical problems in a way that allows people to analyze the problem with some emotional remove, which is important because the high emotions are often what lead to violence. Works like Harry Potter tackle the idea of abuse of power and - " Will stopped himself and swallowed. Everybody at the table, including Kenny, was staring at him in openmouthed surprise. "Anyway," he said before taking a monster bite of his cooling hamburger on a sudden attack of nerves, "iss goomfer umf." "It's good for us," Kenny translated, sounding a little stunned ~ Amy Lane

Is knowledge power?
Is ignorance bliss? ~ Irene Assiba D'Almeida

Post World War II America draws a great deal of interest, but the students also seem to know quite a bit about American exceptionalism and its historical roots. ~ Mohammad Marandi

If we are not aware of who we are, how will we know where we are going or how we should get there ~ Sunday Adelaja

The future vibrated with uncertainty. I had failed. I had ignorance. I had hope. ~ Sean Ferrell

I have a lot of blurring between fiction and non-fiction in so many of my works. For example, my first novel, 'When Nietzsche Wept,' has a great deal of non-fiction in it. I didn't create many characters at all. Almost all of them are historical characters that actually existed. ~ Irvin D. Yalom

The Sufi lovers of the Beloved tell us badly that we must, for our own sakes, always keep on our knees before the majesty of God and always dare to keep up in our hearts a constant stream of longing for the Beloved, however painful that might sometimes be. Without humility, revelation itself can be a source of ignorance because it makes its receiver vain. Longing is both the anguish that burns away the veils of separation between the soul and God and the thread that guides us deeper and deeper within ourselves to where love is waiting, always, to take us further into its mystery. ~ Andrew Harvey

Half-knowledge is worse than ignorance. ~ Thomas B. Macaulay

Being a domestic man, John decidedly missed the wifely attentions he had been accustomed to receive, but as he adored his babies, he cheerfully relinquished his comfort for a time, supposing with masculine ignorance that peace would soon be restored. ~ Louisa May Alcott

In my own recent String Trio I attempt to superimpose two quite different sets of formal strategies, both of which, ultimately, refer back to historical precedent. ~ Brian Ferneyhough

Freedom begins where it ends ignorance ~ Victor Hugo

The best-educated doctor in the world is standing on a low island in the middle of a sea of ignorance. ~ Stephen King

You're not like other Wasps."
"Aren't I?" Aagen smiled, but it was a painful smile. "No doubt you've killed my kinsmen by the score."
"A few," Salma allowed.
"Well, next time you shed my kinden's blood, think on this: we are but men, no less nor more than other men, and we strive and feel joy and fail as men have always done. We live in the darkness that is the birthright of us all, that of hurt and ignorance, only sometimes ... sometimes there comes the sun." He let the bowl fall from his fingers to the floor, watching it spin and settle, unbroken. ~ Adrian Tchaikovsky

Most historical accounts were written by fallible scholars, using incomplete or biased resource materials; written through the scholars' own conscious or unconscious predilections; published by textbook or printing companies that have a stake in maintaining a certain set of beliefs; subtly influenced by entities of government and society - national administrations, state education departments, local school boards, etcetera - that also wish to maintain certain sets of beliefs. To be blunt about it, much of the history of many countries and states is based on delusion, propaganda, misinformation, and omission. ~ James Alexander Thom

I've deprived my family in order to buy books. No doubt there is a special punishment in hell for such self-indulgence. Perhaps I shall be struck with blindness among the rarest known to men. ~ I.J. Parker

Tell them I have the headache
no, the plague! I need something nice and contagious. ~ Lauren Willig

Good things are always appreciated, bad things deserve ignorance. ~ Ritesh Shrivastav

All revolutions are the sheerest fantasy until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities. ~ David Mitchell

It's difficult to dispel arrogance if you retain ignorance. ~ Ken Burns

It is always a much easier task to educate uneducated people than to re-educate the mis-educated. ~ Herbert M. Shelton

So what will define greatness for your generation? I believe it is to use the knowledge that you have earned here to find ways, not only to connect to computers, but to connect to people; not only to bridge gaps in science, but to bridge gaps between cultures; not only to use numbers and formulas to create, but to use words to lead, and in the process, to close that canyon between ignorance and understanding. ~ Carly Fiorina

Three causes especially have excited the discontent of mankind; and, by impelling us to seek remedies for the irremediable, have bewildered us in a maze of madness and error. These are death, toil, and the ignorance of the future.. ~ Charles Mackay

Knowledge leaves no room for chances. ~ Lew Wallace

The greatest of all the accomplishments of 20th century science has been the discovery of human ignorance ~ Lewis Thomas

Once metal hits metal and battle begins no one wishes they had practiced less! ~ Alpha Four

Gossip is a policeman and a teacher. Without it, there would be chaos and ignorance. ~ Jonathan Haidt

Raise your thoughts so high that ignorance cannot reach them. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

The only real source of historical information about pre-Islamic Mecca and the circumstances of the Koran's revelation is the classical Islamic story about the religion's foundation ... ~ Toby Lester

As science pushes forward, ignorance and superstition gallop around the flanks and bite science in the rear with big dark teeth. ~ Philip Jose Farmer

He pulled her into his arms. Closing his eyes, he savored every inch of her small frame. God, why did she have to be the daughter of the Governor of Fort William? Why could she not be a simple lass from his clan. "Och, mo leannan, what am I to do with you?"
She took in a stilted gasp. "Love me. ~ Amy Jarecki