Ignorance is bliss

Cultural  

1. Not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it.

---

ignorance is bliss Idioms  

1. 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.”

---

Discover More

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.’”

Example Sentences

And for those of us who watch compulsively and wouldn’t know a dossier from a dog pound, ignorance is bliss.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 16, 2025

David Zucker: You are quoted as saying that "ignorance is bliss."

From Salon • Oct. 3, 2023

I ultimately respect your viewpoints, but if the greater overall good is to benefit from ignorance, as it relates to family relationships, I do feel as though ignorance is bliss.

From Washington Post • May 3, 2023

It’s terrible to say, but part of me did think that ignorance is bliss.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 10, 2022

Where ignorance is bliss, 'T is folly to be wise.

From Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by Bartlett, John