Nescire autem quid antequam natus sis acciderit, id est semper esse puerum. (To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child.)

Marcus Tullius Cicero
About This Quote

To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. The English poet John Keats captures this sentiment perfectly in his poem “Ode to a Nightingale.” In the poem, Keats plays off the idea of universal knowledge as a kind of dreamlike state. In contrast, ignorance is a state of being that cannot be overcome or escaped from.

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  1. While there's life, there's hope.
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