I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
Will RogersRead
Ignorance lies not in the things you don't know, but in the things you know that ain't so.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True ignorance comes from holding false beliefs rather than simply lacking knowledge.
Will Rogers points out that ignorance is not merely a lack of information, but rather the presence of incorrect information that one firmly believes to be true. This highlights the importance of questioning our convictions and recognizing that false beliefs can cloud our understanding of reality.
Themes
IgnoranceKnowledgeBeliefUnderstandingWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on critical thinking, this quote can remind participants to challenge their assumptions.
More from Will Rogers
All quotes βPeople who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
Will RogersRead
Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.
Will RogersRead
The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it's been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.
Will RogersRead
Let advertisers spend the same amount of money improving their product that they do on advertising and they wouldn't have to advertise it.
Will RogersRead
The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, 'How is the president?'
Will RogersRead
Similar quotes
Why is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?
Francois De La RochefoucauldRead
A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.
Benjamin FranklinRead
There will be books written about Harry. Every child in the world will know his name.
J. K. RowlingRead
..avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.
George WashingtonRead
With a little time, and a little more insight, we begin to see both ourselves and our enemies in humbler profiles. We are not really as innocent as we felt when we were first hurt. And we do not usually have a gigantic monster to forgive; we have a weak, needy, and somewhat stupid human being. When you see your enemy and yourself in the weakness and silliness of the humanity you share, you will make the miracle of forgiving a little easier.
Lewis B. SmedesRead
The crashes people remember, but drivers remember the near misses.
Mario AndrettiRead