Daniel J. Boorstin

agnostic burn heretic unbeliever

“No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.”

― Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004)

write discover think

“I write to discover what I think”

― Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004)

world suffer ignorance pretension knowledge

“I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress.”

― Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004)

obstacle knowledge ignorance

"The greatest obstacle to knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge"

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

education learning didn't know

“Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.”

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

expect deceived disappointed contradictions

“When we pick up the newspaper at breakfast, we expect - we even demand - that it brings us momentous events since the night before...We expect our two-week vacations to be romantic, exotic, cheap, and effortless..We expect anything and everything. We expect the contradictory and the impossible. We expect compact cars which are spacious; luxurious cars which are economical. We expect to be rich and charitable, powerful and merciful, active and reflective, kind and competitive. We expect to be inspired by mediocre appeals for excellence, to be made literate by illiterate appeals for literacy...to go to 'a church of our choice' and yet feel its guiding power over us, to revere God and to be God. Never have people been more the masters of their environment. Yet never has a people felt more deceived and disappointed. For never has a people expected so much more than the world could offer.”

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

obstacle discover shape earth ocean ignorance illusion

“The greatest obstacle to discovering the shape of the earth, the continents, and the oceans was not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.”

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

freedom opportunity be never thought

“Freedom means the opportunity to be what we never thought we would be.”

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

accustomed illusions mistake reality

“We have become so accustomed to our illusions that we mistake them for reality.”

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

born greatness achieve hire PR

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.”

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

shadow substance

“The shadow has become the substance.”

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

terra incognita promising words map human knowledge

“The most promising words ever written on the maps of human knowledge are terra incognita—unknown territory.”

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

western science menace progress ignorance illusion knowledge

"The history of Western science confirms the aphorism that the great menace to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge."

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

spend billion defense fraction library evening weapons military

"Historians will not fail to note that a people who could spend $300 billion on defense refused to spend a tiny fraction of that total to keep their libraries open in the evening."

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)

obstacle discovery illusion knowledge

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge."

—Daniel Boorstin (1914-2004)