A quote about ignorance

A quote about ignorance

73 years ago Albert Camus published his novel ‘The Plague’. While Covid-19 is flooding the world Favas.net want to share the following quote from this accurate and applicable novel. “The evil in the world comes almost always from ignorance, and goodwill can cause as much damage as ill-will if it is not enlightened. People are more often good than bad, though in fact that is not the question. But they are more or less ignorant and this is what one calls vice or virtue, the most appalling vice being the ignorance that thinks it knows everything and which consequently authorizes itself to kill. The murderer’s soul is blind, and there is no true goodness or fine love without the greatest possible degree of clear-sightedness.”

Source: Favas.net from ‘The Plague’ by Albert Camus.

Used copy published March 1991 by Vintage International.

First published June 1947.

Original quote in French:
“Le mal dans le monde vient presque toujours de l’ignorance, et la bonne volonté peut causer autant de dégâts que la mauvaise volonté si elle n’est pas éclairée. Les gens sont plus souvent bons que mauvais, mais en fait ce n’est pas la question. Mais ils sont plus ou moins ignorants et c’est ce que l’on appelle le vice ou la vertu, le vice le plus épouvantable étant l’ignorance qui pense tout savoir et qui par conséquent s’autorise à tuer. L’âme du meurtrier est aveugle, et il n’y a pas de vraie bonté ou de bel amour sans le plus grand degré de clairvoyance possible.”
Source: Gallimard, January 2001.