“It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance” Thomas Sowell, “A childish letter,” syndicated column, Jewish World Review, August 17, 1998.
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If our so-called educators cannot be bothered to teach our children knowledge and logic, they can at least refrain from undermining the importance of knowledge and logic by leading students to believe that how you feel and express yourself are what matter. It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance. Back in 1982, when I began an international study of peoples and cultures, I planned to write a chapter on India.
Excerpt
Sowell is replying to a letter from “a 15-year-old boy” who said American military leaders “over-estimated” the casualties an invasion of Japan would have caused. He goes on to explain that he dropped the planned India chapter: “Although my study took 15 years and resulted in 3 books, there was no chapter on India.”
Wikiquote’s Talk:Thomas Sowell ↗ page lists this line under “Unsourced,” and it does not appear on the main Sowell page. Quote Investigator’s Thomas Sowell tag ↗ has no article on it.
Two quotation sites point to a specific source: AZQuotes ↗ and ReadSowell ↗ both cite the column “A Childish Letter,” Jewish World Review, August 17, 1998.
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Common mix-ups
This one really is Sowell’s. It usually travels without a source, though, it often gets reworded, and it is easy to confuse with older sayings that make the same point.
Even Wikiquote lists the line only on its Talk page under “Unsourced” ↗, so it is often shared as a bare one-liner with no date or publication.
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Similar sayingConfucius (“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance”) Different quote
This is a separate line with similar wording. Goodreads credits it to Confucius by way of a modern book and says its community-added quotes are not verified (Goodreads ↗). It is not the source of Sowell’s sentence.
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Sowell himself“Someone once said…” Related idea
In a 2005 “Random Thoughts” column, Sowell credited the general idea to an unnamed source: “Someone once said that the most important knowledge is knowledge of our own ignorance” (Capitalism Magazine ↗). The idea is old, but the 1998 wording is his.
✓The documented source is Thomas Sowell’s column “A childish letter” ↗, Jewish World Review, August 17, 1998, and its wording is “your own ignorance.”
Context
Why he wrote it
The line was a reply, not a free-floating aphorism. In “A childish letter,” Sowell answers a letter from “a 15-year-old boy” who said American military leaders had “over-estimated” the casualties an invasion of Japan would have caused. Sowell uses that letter to criticize schools that teach students to value expressing opinions over acquiring knowledge.
He then gives himself as the example. He writes that in 1982 he began an international study of peoples and cultures and planned a chapter on India. Only after reading about India, visiting it twice and talking with Indian scholars and officials did he see how little he knew. “Although my study took 15 years and resulted in 3 books, there was no chapter on India.”
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.
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Born 1930 · American economist, economic historian & social theorist
Thomas Sowell, born June 30, 1930, in Gastonia, North Carolina, is an American economist and social theorist. He is the Rose and Milton Friedman Senior Fellow on Public Policy at Stanford’s Hoover Institution. For decades he wrote a newspaper column distributed by Creators Syndicate, and he announced its end on December 27, 2016. He has written many books on economics, race and culture, and the role of intellectuals.
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Primary source
Thomas Sowell, “A Childish Letter,” syndicated column (Creators Syndicate), Jewish World Review, August 17, 1998, https://jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell081798.html.
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Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/it-takes-considerable-knowledge-just-to-realize-the-extent/