--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Most ignorance is by choice, you know…" description: "\"“Most ignorance is by choice, you know, and so ignorance is very telling about what really matters to people.”\" — Kim Stanley Robinson" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/398/kim-stanley-robinson-2148_ignorance_most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and_3172056.png" --- # Most ignorance is by choice, you know, and so ignorance is… ![“Most ignorance is by choice, you know, and so ignorance is very telling about what really matters to people.” quote by Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/398/kim-stanley-robinson-2148_ignorance_most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and_3172056.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/398/kim-stanley-robinson-2148_ignorance_most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and_3172056.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/398/kim-stanley-robinson-2148_ignorance_most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and_3172056.png) > ““Most ignorance is by choice, you know, and so ignorance is very telling about what really matters to people.”” [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Choosing ignorance reveals what truly matters to people, exposing their priorities and values. **In simple terms:** Ignorance by choice shows what we care about. Key Takeaway Examine why you ignore certain facts. Themes ignorance choice values Mood thoughtful analytical Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - education - political discourse - personal growth - media consumption Key Concepts cognitive bias self-awareness prioritization Questions to Reflect On - What topics do you avoid and why? - How does selective ignorance shape your life? A Different Perspective People may resist confronting uncomfortable truths. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Ignorance](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ignorance/) ## Related quotes > [“Deep-rooted beliefs are one of the many consequences of intellect, and also of ignorance; and telling one from the other is sometimes impossible.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bryant-mcgill/deep-rooted-beliefs-are-one-of-the-many-consequences-of-intellect-and/) [Bryant McGill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bryant-mcgill/) > [Being scared about telling someone how you really feel. Finally Getting the courage to do it and they respond "Oh ok..."](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/being-scared-about-telling-someone-how-you-really-feel-finally/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Maybe it’s our duty to be shaped a hundred times by the same stories. We think we’re telling them but really they’re keeping us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/naomi-shihab-nye/maybe-it-s-our-duty-to-be-shaped-a-hundred-times-by-the-same-stories/) [Naomi Shihab Nye](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/naomi-shihab-nye/) > [“I won’t let you leave without telling me what’s really going on.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephanie-john/i-won-t-let-you-leave-without-telling-me-what-s-really-going-on/) Stephanie John > [“Stupidity is an unfortunate consequence of lousy genetic heritage. Ignorance is a choice.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rowan-manahan/stupidity-is-an-unfortunate-consequence-of-lousy-genetic-heritage/) Rowan Manahan > [Stupid is a condition. Ignorance is a choice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wiley-miller/stupid-is-a-condition-ignorance-is-a-choice/) Wiley Miller > [In the age of information, ignorance is a choice. Question everything. Don't believe everything you hear. Come to your own conclusions.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-patterson/in-the-age-of-information-ignorance-is-a-choice-question-everything/) [Mark Patterson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-patterson/) > [In the age of information, ignorance is a choice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/in-the-age-of-information-ignorance-is-a-choice/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [There is no slight danger from general ignorance; and the only choice which Providence has graciously left to a vicious government is either to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/samuel-taylor-coleridge/there-is-no-slight-danger-from-general-ignorance-and-the-only-choice/) [Samuel Taylor Coleridge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/samuel-taylor-coleridge/) > [You only have a true choice when you know what opportunities are out there and what qualifications you need.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/esther-mcvey/you-only-have-a-true-choice-when-you-know-what-opportunities-are-out/) [Esther McVey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/esther-mcvey/) > [I know how I was born and I know that I have no choice. I know it may not show on the color of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sara-quin/i-know-how-i-was-born-and-i-know-that-i-have-no-choice-i-know-it-may/) [Sara Quin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sara-quin/) > [“I don't know. I didn't have that choice. But I know what's happening now. And I'm choosing to stay with you.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/huntley-fitzpatrick/i-don-t-know-i-didn-t-have-that-choice-but-i-know-what-s-happening/) [Huntley Fitzpatrick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/huntley-fitzpatrick/) > [I am not perfect, I am just me..love me or hate me...the choice is yours, but know that I am always going to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/i-am-not-perfect-i-am-just-me-love-me-or-hate-me-the-choice-is-yours/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Industries and businesses that must operate in the marketplace of free choice know that they must change, they must adapt, they must accommodate to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-ruckelshaus/industries-and-businesses-that-must-operate-in-the-marketplace-of/) [William Ruckelshaus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-ruckelshaus/) > [Now is almost always the better choice. You never know about later.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julia-glass/now-is-almost-always-the-better-choice-you-never-know-about-later/) [Julia Glass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julia-glass/) ## More by Kim Stanley Robinson > [The minimum that most minimalists want leaves in place just the institutions who protect their interests. That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/the-minimum-that-most-minimalists-want-leaves-in-place-just-the/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“It's the love of right lures men to wrong.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/it-s-the-love-of-right-lures-men-to-wrong/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“You can’t make love to your fame. Even though some people try.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/you-can-t-make-love-to-your-fame-even-though-some-people-try/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“Memory is a haunting.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/memory-is-a-haunting/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“No one cares about books, that’s why you can write anything you want in them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/no-one-cares-about-books-that-s-why-you-can-write-anything-you-want/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“Sometimes I think it's only post-scarcity that evil exists. Before that, it could always be put down to want or fear. It was possible…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/sometimes-i-think-it-s-only-post-scarcity-that-evil-exists-before/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [Science fiction rarely is about scientists doing real science, in its slowness, its vagueness, the sort of tedious quality of getting out there and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/science-fiction-rarely-is-about-scientists-doing-real-science-in-its/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [Anyway that's a large part of what economics is - people arbitrarily, or as a matter of taste, assigning numerical values to non-numerical things.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/anyway-that-s-a-large-part-of-what-economics-is-people-arbitrarily-or/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“The Earth is bathed in a flood of sunlight. A fierce inundation of photons—on average, 342 joules per second per square meter. 4185 joules…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/the-earth-is-bathed-in-a-flood-of-sunlight-a-fierce-inundation-of/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“And so sometimes when you feel strange, when a pang tugs at your heart or it seems like the moment has already happened- or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/and-so-sometimes-when-you-feel-strange-when-a-pang-tugs-at-your-heart/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“...what has mattered are the moments of exposure to every life, when habit is no longer enough, and choices have to be made. That's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/what-has-mattered-are-the-moments-of-exposure-to-every-life-when/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“There remained a main melody, or a path through a maze—a maze that was like the delta of the Po. He seemed to look…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/there-remained-a-main-melody-or-a-path-through-a-maze-a-maze-that-was/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“Must redefine utopia. It isn't the perfect end-product of our wishes, define it so and it deserves the scorn of those who sneer when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/must-redefine-utopia-it-isn-t-the-perfect-end-product-of-our-wishes/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [“Of course there was no such thing as a true repetition of anything; ever since the pre-Socratics that had been clear, Heraclitus and his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/of-course-there-was-no-such-thing-as-a-true-repetition-of-anything/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) > [But lies were what people wanted; that was politics.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/but-lies-were-what-people-wanted-that-was-politics/) [Kim Stanley Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) [Explore all 183 Kim Stanley Robinson quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/) ## More Ignorance quotes > [My folks tried to make a preacher of me and missed by a narrow margin… I would have made a good one if I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-a-heinlein/my-folks-tried-to-make-a-preacher-of-me-and-missed-by-a-narrow-margin/) [Robert A. Heinlein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-a-heinlein/) > [If you had made the acquiring of ignorance the study of your life, you could not have graduated with higher honor than you could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mark-twain/if-you-had-made-the-acquiring-of-ignorance-the-study-of-your-life-you/) [Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mark-twain/) > [One of the deepest and strangest of all human moods is the mood which will suddenly strike us perhaps in a garden at night,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/one-of-the-deepest-and-strangest-of-all-human-moods-is-the-mood-which/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Ignorance is not bliss — it is oblivion. Determined ignorance is the hastiest kind of oblivion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/philip-wylie/ignorance-is-not-bliss-it-is-oblivion-determined-ignorance-is-the/) [Philip Wylie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/philip-wylie/) > [... informed ignorance provides the natural state of mind for research scientists at the ever-shifting frontiers of knowledge. People who believe themselves ignorant of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-degrasse-tyson/informed-ignorance-provides-the-natural-state-of-mind-for-research/) [Neil deGrasse Tyson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-degrasse-tyson/) > [“If knowledge does not liberate the self from the self, then ignorance is better than such knowledge.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hakim-sanai/if-knowledge-does-not-liberate-the-self-from-the-self-then-ignorance/) [Hakim Sanai](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hakim-sanai/) > [You are senile old fool, and because of your impudence, I cannot fathom how you still live!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/you-are-senile-old-fool-and-because-of-your-impudence-i-cannot-fathom/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Surely, God could have caused birds to fly with their bones made of solid gold, with their veins full of quicksilver, with their flesh…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/galileo-galilei/surely-god-could-have-caused-birds-to-fly-with-their-bones-made-of/) [Galileo Galilei](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/galileo-galilei/) > [“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-madison/knowledge-will-forever-govern-ignorance-and-a-people-who-mean-to-be/) [James Madison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-madison/) > [“Don’t turn your face away. Once you’ve seen, you can no longer act like you don’t know. Open your eyes to the truth. It’s…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vashti-quiroz-vega/don-t-turn-your-face-away-once-you-ve-seen-you-can-no-longer-act-like/) Vashti Quiroz-Vega > [Nothing is worse than active ignorance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/nothing-is-worse-than-active-ignorance/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [The only victories which leave no regret are those which are gained over ignorance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/napoleon-bonaparte/the-only-victories-which-leave-no-regret-are-those-which-are-gained/) [Napoleon Bonaparte](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/napoleon-bonaparte/) > [“Those who embrace prejudice doom themselves to live in ignorance.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-p-lintz-sr/those-who-embrace-prejudice-doom-themselves-to-live-in-ignorance/) John P Lintz Sr > [“You are a lawmaker in your own right.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sunday-adelaja/you-are-a-lawmaker-in-your-own-right/) [Sunday Adelaja](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sunday-adelaja/) > [Sanity can take one of only two forms: that of ignorance, or denial.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/derek-r-audette/sanity-can-take-one-of-only-two-forms-that-of-ignorance-or-denial/) [Derek R. Audette](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/derek-r-audette/) [Browse all 5,657 Ignorance quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ignorance/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Most ignorance is by choice, you know, and so ignorance is very telling about what really matters to people.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and-so-ignorance-is-very-telling/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Ignorance" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and-so-ignorance-is-very-telling/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/398/kim-stanley-robinson-2148_ignorance_most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and_3172056.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/398/kim-stanley-robinson-2148_ignorance_most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and_3172056.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/398/kim-stanley-robinson-2148_ignorance_most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and_3172056.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Most ignorance is by choice, you know, and so ignorance is very telling about what really matters to people.” — Kim Stanley Robinson", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Kim Stanley Robinson", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kim-stanley-robinson/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Most ignorance is by choice, you...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and-so-ignorance-is-very-telling/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kim-stanley-robinson/most-ignorance-is-by-choice-you-know-and-so-ignorance-is-very-telling/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```