There have always been ignorant people, but they haven't always had college degrees to make them unaware of their ignorance. Some people imagine that they are well informed because they have memorized a whole galaxy of trendy dogmas and fashionable attitudes.

Just what is it that academics have to fear if they stand up for common decency, instead of letting campus barbarians run amok?

The next time some academics tell you how important diversity is, ask how many Republicans there are in their sociology department.

It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

I write nothing for publication, and last of all things should it be on the subject of religion. On the dogmas of religion as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarrelling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind. Were I to enter on that arena, I should only add an unit to the number of Bedlamites.

[Letter to Mathew Carey, 11 November 1816]

. . where ignorance is bliss, 'Tis folly to be wise.