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About this quote

What does it mean?
There is nothing more terrible than active ignorance.
In plain terms
Willful ignorance is extremely dangerous.
What can you take from it?
Avoid complacent unawareness.

Where it applies

  • public policy debates
  • personal health decisions

Putting it to work

  • stay informed
  • question assumptions

Questions to consider

  • When have you been complacently ignorant?
  • How can you combat willful blindness?

Another view

Sometimes ignorance is unintentional rather than willful.

More from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  1. All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again.

    Permalink to quote #92
  2. Of all peoples the Greeks have dreamt the dream of life best.

    Permalink to quote #94
  3. A man's manners are a mirror in which he shows his portrait.

    Permalink to quote #91

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