help, who said this??

[Marryanne]

Ignorance is the necessary condition of human happiness; we're almost entirely ignorant of ourselves... in ignorance we find our bliss and in Illusions our happiness...

Does anyone know who said this and what work it comes from?

[madsrant]

I am not sure of the exact quote, but the overall feeling leads me to believe it may be from the Karmasaya.

[Lorenzo Steed]

Yet ah! why should they know their fate,
Since sorrow never comes too late,
And happiness too swiftly flies?
Thought would destroy their paradise.
No more; where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.
Thomas Gray, "On a Distant Prospect of Eton College" 1742

This is close. Steed

[SolarPlexus]

...I, too was looking for the author of this quote and upon searching online, all I found was this message board and someone asking the same question. So at least this will serve, for a time, as an archive of the answer.

The author is Anatole France. The book is "The Gods Will Have Blood".

Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics Edition: 1990 (Reprinted from 1979, and I believe a later edition exists also from Penguin). Translated by Frederick Davies, 1979.

Pg. 70

"After the usual politeness, the Citizen Brotteaux resumed the thread of his discourse:
'Those who make a trade out of foretelling the future rarely grow rich. Their attempts to deceive are too easily found out and arouse detestation. And yet it would be necessary to detest them much, much more if they foretold the future correctly. For a man's life would become intolerable, if he knew what was going to happen to him. He would be made aware of future evils, and would suffer their agonies in advance, while he would get no joy of present blessings since he would know how they would end. Ignorance is the necessary condition of human happiness, and it has to be admitted that on the whole mankind observes that condition well. We are almost entirely ignorant of ourselves; absolutely of others. In ignorance, we find our bliss; in illusions, our happiness.'"

I heard this quote in a movie by filmmaker Hal Hartley titled, "Surviving Desire", which he says is his least favorite film, but I still found it worth the viewing. Anyway, another quote from the same book was read in that movie and it's found on pg. 96:

"Yet, every now and then, there would pass a young girl, slender, fair and desirable, arousing in young men a not ignoble desire to possess her, and stirring in old men regrets for ecstasy not seized and now forever past."

It's a good thing Hal chose to show the book in the movie, or esle I'd have never found it. From the cover picture, blurry title, and Penguin formatting of the era, I was able to pick it out of 1,000 or so listings at Amazon.com. Luckily, it wasn't too far down the list. :)

Hope this helps someone out.