Restait en dernier lieu la classe superstitieuse des ignorants; ceux-lá ne se contentent pas d'ignorer, ils savent ce qui n'est pas." - Meaning and context.">
Their remains but the third class, the superstitious. These worthies were not content merely to rest in ignorance; they must know all about things which had no existence whatever.
 • Ch. VI: The Permissive Limits of Ignorance and Belief in the United States (Charles Scribner's Sons "Uniform Edition", 1890, p. 31)
Variant: There was the class of superstitious people; they are not content simply to ignore what is true, they also believe what is not true.
 • Tr. Walter James Miller (1978)

Restait en dernier lieu la classe superstitieuse des ignorants; ceux-lá ne se contentent pas d'ignorer, ils savent ce qui n'est pas.

— Jules Verne

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Restait en dernier lieu la classe superstitieuse des ignorants; ceux-lá ne se contentent pas d'ignorer, ils savent ce qui n'est pas." in the context of "Their remains but the third class, the superstitious. These worthies were not content merely to rest in ignorance; they must know all about things which had no existence whatever.
 • Ch. VI: The Permissive Limits of Ignorance and Belief in the United States (Charles Scribner's Sons "Uniform Edition", 1890, p. 31)
Variant: There was the class of superstitious people; they are not content simply to ignore what is true, they also believe what is not true.
 • Tr. Walter James Miller (1978)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Jules Verne" (Quotes, From the Earth to the Moon (1865): De la Terre à la Lune. Trans. French text here. English text here.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Jules Verne

About Jules Verne

Jules Verne (8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French writer best known as a pioneering author in science fiction.