there is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

It's not embarrassing to lack knowledge, but to fail to learn

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Thiếu kiến thức không đáng hổ thẹn, nhưng không học thì có

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Where it’s used: Used Widespread English
Sources & notes

Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “there is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out” mean?

It's not embarrassing to lack knowledge, but to fail to learn

Is “there is no shame in not knowing; the shame lies in not finding out” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.