confession of ignorance

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

While we have no reason to dispute Kennedy’s confession of ignorance about the nation’s security, we do know a great deal more than he lets on.

From Washington Post • Nov. 25, 2019

I also knew that universities did not reward ignorance, or the confession of ignorance, and so I kept my ignorance to myself and pretended that I knew what I was doing.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2017

With a feeble attempt at wit he remarks that the name itself implies a confession of ignorance, which he marvels to find unaccompanied by "the logical result of a philosophical humility."

From Arrows of Freethought by Foote, G. W. (George William)

Huxley said he did not know, which was equivalent to the dogmatic assertion that he did; Gladstone said he did know, which was a confession of ignorance denser than that of agnosticism.

From Two Thousand Miles on an Automobile Being a Desultory Narrative of a Trip Through New England, New York, Canada, and the West, By "Chauffeur" by Eddy, Arthur Jerome

Now the hypnosis of the classic—that what we call intelligence is only an expression of inequilibrium; that when mental adjustments are made, intelligence ceases—or, of course, that intelligence is the confession of ignorance.

From The Book of the Damned by Fort, Charles