"Ignorance is Bliss" Idiom Meaning, Origin & History | Superduper English Idioms
Channel: Superduper English Idioms
Date: 2020-06-29

0:00 - How to Say, “Ignorance is bliss.”
0:22 - Examples of “Ignorance is bliss.”
0:56 - Meaning of “Ignorance is bliss.”
3:18 - Origin of “Ignorance is bliss.”
3:59 - More Examples of “Ignorance is bliss.”
4:34 - Conclusion

“Ignorance is bliss.”

You’ve probably heard someone say that “ignorance is bliss,” when talking about someone who is happy because they don’t know some piece of bad news.

Maybe you want to hurry and tell your friend some bad news, but another friend says, “Don’t tell him, don’t ruin his mood! Ignorance is bliss, y’know…”

Your parents might be having a hard time financially, but say to each other, “Let’s not talk to the kids about money, ignorance is bliss. We’ll get through this.”

Essentially, the idiom, “ignorance is bliss,” means that if you don’t know a bad piece of news, then you won’t feel bad.

If you’re “ignorant” to something unwanted or negative, then you’ll only feel “bliss”.

“Ignorance is bliss” not only covers bad news, but also includes the technicalities of something complicated.

If you don’t understand how something works - you’re ignorant about it - you’ll be blissful because you have no idea what could go wrong.

Young children, for example, are usually happy because they don’t understand the affairs of adults and they may not even understand people’s moods.

You might be really happy with your new job, until you start finding out the truth about your colleagues, managers and company in general!

Perhaps you don’t understand a coming disaster, such as climate change or a pandemic, thus you don’t worry about it at all.

“Ignorance is bliss” is related to another idiom, “out of sight, out of mind,” which means that if you don’t see something, you don’t think about it.

It’s easy to see why “out of sight, out of mind” makes sense; if rising global temperatures are causing droughts in some countries, but not yours, you won’t be alarmed.

If your country is filled with people in poverty, but you live in a rich neighbourhood, poverty won’t seem like a concern to you.

The idiom, “ignorance is bliss,” was coined by English poet and professor, Thomas Gray, 1716-1771, in the poem, “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”.

Though this idiom has a concrete origin, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the general idea that not knowing something allows one to continue to be happy, goes farther back in human history.

You might want to share a disturbing piece of news with a friend, but she says, “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know… ignorance is bliss!”

Perhaps one of your investments went down in value, but has since recovered, you might say to your partner, “Ignorance really is bliss! We would’ve been very stressed out if we had known how low it went…”

So, whether you want to describe a situation in which you think it’s better not to inform someone in order to keep them from getting upset…

… or you want to stop yourself from finding out too much so you don’t worry about it, you can use the idiom, “ignorance is bliss.”

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