Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession - their ignorance.
Interpretation
People often cling to their ignorance, making any effort to confront it likely to be met with resistance.
This quote by Hendrik Willem Van Loon suggests that ignorance is a deeply held belief or state of being that people value. When faced with attempts to challenge or correct their misunderstandings, individuals will often resist such interventions because they perceive ignorance as a protective barrier against uncomfortable truths.
In practice
In a debate about education reform, this quote can highlight the challenges of addressing deeply held misconceptions.
In life, if you don't know the truth, then you can't be free, because then you'll believe that the lies are the truth. But once we realize that when we read the Word of God, and you know the truth of who you are, then I'm not a man without arms and legs. I am a child of God.
Mankind's greatest error, the biggest deception of the past thousand years is this: to confuse poverty with stupidity.
All that I did," she said, "everything I tried to do. All for nothing." Nothing is done entirely for nothing, said the fox of dreams. Nothing is wasted. You are older, and you have made decisions, and you are not the fox you were yesterday. Take what you have learned, and move on.
If I experiment enough, I get a deeper understanding.
And what is a man without energy? Nothing - nothing at all.
The Spirit bears witness. Ecstasy and enlightenment, inspiration and intuition are not necessary. Happy is the man who is worthy of these; but woe unto us if we wait for such experiences; woe unto us if we do not perceive that these things are of secondary importance.
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