quote · Legacy record
Ignorance is the necessary condition, i do not say of happiness, but of life itself. If we knew everything, we could not endure existence a single hour. The sentiments that make it sweet to us, or at any rate tolerable, spring from a falsehood, and are fed on illusions.If, like God, a man possessed the truth, the sole and perfect truth, and once let it escape out of his hands, the world would be annihilated there and then, and the universe melt away instantly like a shadow.
Ignorance is the necessary condition, i do not say of happiness, but of life itself. If we knew everything, we could not endure existence a single hour. The sentiments that make it sweet to us, or at any rate tolerable, spring from a falsehood, and are fed on illusions.If, like God, a man possessed the truth, the sole and perfect truth, and once let it escape out of his hands, the world would be annihilated there and then, and the universe melt away instantly like a shadow.
Approximate author period: c. 1884 AD · industrial
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- Author or tradition
- Anatole France
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1884 AD · industrial
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1844 to 1924; Wikidata Q42443, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q42443 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 250660; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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