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The peasantry are wiser in their ignorance than the savants of St Petersburg in their learning.

— William Barrett Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

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More quotes by William Barrett

The bomb reveals the dreadful and total contingency of human existence. Existentialism is the philosophy of the atomic age.

Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

Heidegger's philosophy is neither atheism nor theism, but a description of the world from which God is absent.

Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

Faith can no more be described to a thoroughly rational mind than the idea of colors can be conveyed to a blind man.

Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

Of all the non-European philosophers, William James probably best deserves to be an Existentialist.

Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

A recognition of limits, of boundaries, may be the only thing that prevents power from dizzy collapse.

Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy (1958)

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You have to start with the truth. The truth is the only way that we can get anywhere. Because any decision-making that is based upon lies or ignorance can't lead to a good conclusion.

Julian Assange

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

H. P. Lovecraft The Call of Cthulhu (1926)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.

Bertrand Russell

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Barrett (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.