A person is never happy except at the price of some ignorance. – Anatole France
What can be more foolish than to think that all this rare fabric of heaven and earth could come by chance, when all the skill of art is not able to make an oyster! – Anatole France
When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it. – Anatole France
There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant. – Anatole France
Genuine ignorance is… profitable because it is likely to be accompanied by humility, curiosity, and open mindedness; whereas ability to repeat catch-phrases, cant terms, familiar propositions, gives the conceit of learning and coats the mind with varnish waterproof to new ideas. – John Dewey
History shows that there is nothing so easy to enslave and nothing so hard to emancipate as ignorance, hence it becomes the double enemy of civilization. By its servility it is the prey of tyranny, and by its credulity it is the foe of enlightenment. – Lemuel K. Washburn, Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays