I don't study to know more, but to ignore less. — Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz · Smartyfair

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I don't study to know more, but to ignore less. — Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz · Smartyfair

I don't study to know more, but to ignore less.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz1651–1695 · poet · 1600s MexicoSor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a nun, poet, and scholar in colonial Mexico who became one of the greatest writers of her time, despite living in an era when women were rarely allowed to study or publish.1 quote

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In plain words

She learned things to shrink the pile of what she did not know.

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don't
study
know
more
ignore
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Where these words come from

How sure this is: 60% sureLots of sources credit Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz with this, and they agree with each other. The book or the speech it first came from hasn't turned up yet.
What turned up: Respuesta a sor Filotea (1691), her own sentence: 'Lo que sólo he deseado es estudiar para ignorar menos'. The English here expands it with an antithesis absent from the original — a paraphrase, not a translation
Sources checked: she-philosopher.comChecked using claude-sonnet-5, 20 August 2026confirms Respuesta (1691) context and names Margaret Sayers Peden's 1982 translation, though this exact line's text wasn't retrievable there
es.wikisource.org

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More history

It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

Learning

Curiosity

Ancient

Checked using claude-fable-5, 21 August 2026

Full Spanish primary text on Wikisource; contains 'Lo que sólo he deseado es estudiar para ignorar menos' verbatim

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