Strategic Ignorance Quotes

It takes a smart man to play dumb.

The advantage of wisdom is that you can play dumb. The opposite is more difficult.

I'm smarter than the average; I just act dumb. That's what gets people's attention; you act dumb, you get people's attention.

It is never wise to try to appear to be more clever than you are. It is sometimes wise to appear slightly less so.

I sighed. I hated the maze of bureaucracy with a passion, but I've found the best way to deal with it is to smile and act stupid. That way, no one gets confused.

He who would rule must hear and be deaf, see and be blind.

A man who knows the world will not only make the most of everything he does know, but of many things he does not know, and will gain more credit by his adroit mode of hiding his ignorance than the pedant by his awkward attempt to exhibit his erudition.

Information is power. Particularly when the competition ignores the opportunity to do the same.

Did you know that Kodak actually invented the digital camera that ultimately put it out of business? Kodak had the patents and a head start, but ignored all that.

It is a profitable thing, if one is wise, to seem foolish.

A seeming ignorance is very often a most necessary part of worldly knowledge. It is, for instance, commonly advisable to seem ignorant of what people offer to tell you; and when they say, Have not you heard of such a thing? to answer No, and to let them go on, though you know it already.

What you don’t know can be your greatest asset.

We frustrate many designs against us by pretending not to see them.

I firmly believe that knowing too much too soon can color your performance in a not good way. I just don't want to know until I need to know.

I remember telling a neurosurgeon, "Don't give me too much information, because at the moment my ignorance is my best asset."

The art of the police is not to see what it is useless that it should see.

Women know what they're doing all the time, and they're pretending that they don't.

When you talk with famous scholars, the best thing is to pretend that occasionally you do not quite understand them. If you understand too little, you will be despised; if you understand too much, you will be disliked; if you just fail occasionally to understand them, you will suit each other very well.

Selective ignorance, a cornerstone of child rearing. You don't put kids under surveillance: it might frighten you. Parents should sit tall in the saddle and look upon their troops with a noble and benevolent and extremely nearsighted gaze.

In dealing with a man who thinks you are a fool, it is good sometimes to remind him that you know what he knows but have chosen to appear foolish for the sake of peace.

One of the marks of a truly great mind, I had discovered, is the ability to feign stupidity on demand.