Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Life is full of mysteries, but those who refuse to seek understanding are bound by their own passivity.
In plain terms
Not trying to understand life makes you a slave to ignorance.
What can you take from it?
Seek understanding actively rather than accepting confusion passively.

Where it applies

  • personal growth
  • decision making
  • philosophical inquiry

Putting it to work

  • read widely
  • ask questions
  • challenge assumptions

Questions to consider

  • What mysteries are you avoiding?
  • Are you choosing comfort over clarity?

Another view

Sometimes the veil cannot be penetrated regardless of effort.

More from Benjamin Disraeli

  1. The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.

    Permalink to quote #110

  2. When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.

    Permalink to quote #112

  3. Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius.

    Permalink to quote #109

Related quotes

  1. Remain in wonder if you want mysteries to open up for you. Mysteries never open up for those who go on questioning. Questioners sooner or later end up in a lib…

    OshoOsho quote #18

  2. Nature loves to hide her secrets, and she does not suffer the hidden truth about the essential nature of the gods to be flung in naked words to the ears of the…

    JulianJulian quote #9

  3. I've looked at clouds from both sides now, From up and down, and still somehow It's cloud illusions I recall, I really don't know clouds at all.

    Joni MitchellJoni Mitchell quote #13