Ignorance is bliss

Not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it.

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Notes

This proverb resembles “What you don't know cannot hurt you.” It figures in a passage from “On a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” by the eighteenth-century English poet Thomas Gray: “Where ignorance is bliss, / ‘Tis folly to be wise.’”

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Idioms and Phrases

What you don't know won't hurt you. For example, She decided not to read the critics' reviews—ignorance is bliss . Although its truth may be dubious at best, this idea has been expressed since ancient times. The actual wording, however, comes from Thomas Gray's poem, “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College” (1742): “Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.”

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April 17, 2024axolotl

[ak-suh-lot-l ]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

ignorance ignorant

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