Fernando Pessoa Quotes

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

The reason there's so much ignorance is that those who have it are so eager to share it.

For the great enemy of truth is very often not the lie--deliberate, contrived and dishonest--but the myth--persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Too often we hold fast to the cliches of our forebears. We subject all facts to a prefabricated set of interpretations. We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

I think some people don't even know what they're talking about, and they just start talking with an opinion, not even asking questions.

The most abysmal advise ever given by the ignorant to the stupid.

If you go and talk to most people, they mean well but they don't have much of a breadth on education, of knowledge of understanding what the real issues are and therefore they listen to pundits on television who tell them what they are supposed to think and they keep repeating that until pretty soon they say, 'Oh, well that must be true.'

We now have a whole culture based on the assumption that people know nothing and so anything can be said to them.

There are more fools in the world than there are people.

The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about.

The less you know, the more you believe.

'Stupidity' defines the mental state wherein we acknowledge that we've never been smarter as individuals and yet somehow we've never felt stupider. We now collectively inhabit a state of stupidity.

It is the folly of too many to mistake the echo of a London coffee-house for the voice of the kingdom.

When it comes to comedy, it might be interesting to know why an airplane works, but really? Maybe it's better not to know why certain things work. Just fly the thing, and if nothing falls apart, you'll be fine.

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.

You can never underestimate the stupidity of the general public.

It bothers me that people who should know better believe a glossy magazine fantasy.

The ignorant man always adores what he cannot understand.

Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.

I have never known so much naive conviction allied to greater intellectual poverty.

The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.

All the Khmer leaders and nobles, all the district chiefs and all the common people are ignorant, stupid, foolish and gullible. They have no idea what is true and what is false.

It is unwise to wish everything explained.

Even intelligent people succumb to their own propaganda.

Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.

The bulk of mankind, even in those nations which are most celebrated for learning and wisdom, are still carried down the torrents of superstition, and entertain very unworthy apprehensions