Ignorance is bliss

Not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it.

Note

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.’”

Idioms and Phrases with ignorance is bliss

ignorance is bliss

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.”