If ignorance is bliss, then what is knowledge?
Knowledge is wonder. It’s allowed us to travel millions of kilometres beyond this tiny dot in the universe, look back and take a selfie.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• If I knew I would be very happy to tell you.
Harvey Mitchell, Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia
• Negative definition, attributed by 19th-century undergraduates in The Masque of Balliol to the erudite Benjamin Jowett: “I am Master of this College;/ What I don’t know isn’t knowledge.”
Joan Dawson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Often a sense of inadequacy because you may realise how little you knew and how much you still don’t know.
Pat Phillips, Adelaide, South Australia
• Knowledge is care.
E Slack, L’Isle Jourdain, France
• ’Tis folly to be wise, but a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
Ted Webber, Buderim, Queensland, Australia
• Knowledge sits somewhere between data (far too much of it) and wisdom (far too little of it). However, the right amount of knowledge is important as a little bit can be a dangerous thing in many situations.
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
• Knowledge is power, but only if it is shared. Knowledge that is not shared dies.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• Ignorance is bliss for the closed mind, ensuring the doors remain shut. Knowledge is bliss for the curious, opening doors to the awareness that there is still so much to learn.
Noel Bird, Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
• A high horse.
R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya
• Knowledge is the portal to understanding of how blissful we have been, and an apprehension of how pervasive the state of bliss is.
Rusty Hanna, Batchelor, Northern Territory, Australia
Far too many candidates
Who’s the worst person who ever lived and why do you think so?
Sir Hiram Maxim, because of the numbers killed and maimed worldwide by the machine guns he developed.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• It’s too big an ask to choose the most despicable, among an estimated 100 billion to 115 billion human beings who have trod the earth. There are far too many candidates.
Lawrie Bradly, Surrey Hills, Victoria, Australia
• Declan Murphy, because he pulled my hair and made me cry, right in front of Sandra Geddes, whom I wanted to marry.
Stuart Powell, St Albans, UK
• There are many people who could be chosen for this one. I do not think we start out “bad” but along the way some adult lays the seed that turns a person in those formative years. So I say that it is those adults collectively who teach hate, intolerance, prejudice to children.
Doreen Forney, Pownal, Vermont, US
• The guy who queue-jumped me last night to get the last taxi home.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
Serving the common good
Who was the last elected leader who gave priority to the common good over votes for the next election?
Sir Robert Peel – who, as Tory British home secretary carried the unpopular Roman Catholic Relief Act in 1829, and as prime minister repealed the Corn Laws in 1846, thus splitting his party and precipitating his resignation. A true man of principle, both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties have tended to regard him as a progenitor of their modern parties.
Alaisdair Raynham, Truro, Cornwall, UK
Any answers?
Isn’t it time we met some of the regular N&Q contributors in the space below?
Mike Cantrell, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Send answers to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com or Guardian Weekly, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU, UK
