Chapter HUNGRY to IGNORANCE of Index by Grocott's Quotations - Alpha

We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit,
By losing of our prayers.

Shakespeare.—Anthony and Cleo., Act II. Scene 1. (Menecrates to Pompey.)

So much does our true interest lie concealed from us.

Riley’s Ovid’s Meta., Page 211.

Heaven from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All, but the page prescrib’d; their present state;
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could suffer being here below?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed to-day,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas’d to the last, he crops the flow’ry food,
And licks the hand just raised to shed his blood.

Pope.—On Man, Epi. I. Line 77.

The sheep was sacrific’d on no pretence,
But meek and unresisting innocence:
A patient, useful creature, born to bear,
The warm and woolly fleece, that cloth’d her murderer.

Dryden.—Pythagorean, Phil.

Prithee, despatch,
The lamb entreats the butcher.

Shakespeare.—Cymbeline, Act III. Scene 4.

Where ignorance is bliss,
’Tis folly to be wise.

Gray.—Ode on Eton College.

And sweet it is in ignorance to be,
In that the will of God and ours agree.

Wright’s Dante, Paradiso, Canto XX. Line 136.

IGNORANCE.—Let me not burst in ignorance!

Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act I. Scene 4. (Hamlet to the Ghost.)

In man’s most dark extremity
Oft succour dawns from heaven.

Scott.—Lord of the Isles, Canto I. Stanza 20.

We oft doubt
What the unsearchable dispose
Of highest wisdom brings about.
Oft he seems to hide his face,
But unexpectedly returns.

Milton.—Samson Agonistes.

By outward show
Men judge of happiness and woe.
Shall ignorance of good and ill
Dare to direct th’ eternal will?

Gay.—Fable XXXIX. Line 45.

Alas, regardless of their doom,
The little victims play!
No sense have they of ills to come,
No care beyond to-day.

Gray.—Ode on Eton College, Stanza 6.

Be ignorance thy choice, where knowledge leads to woe.