ProverbChallenge
English origin1546
English origin1546There are none so deaf as those who will not hear.
Meaning: Willful ignorance is more impenetrable than physical deafness; people reject truth they refuse to accept.
Origin: The thought echoes Jeremiah 5:21, which speaks of people "which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not." John Heywood's 1546 collection of proverbs pairs deafness with its twin: "Who is so deaf, or so blind, as is he / That wilfully will neither hear nor see?" It is said of someone who refuses to take in what they do not want to know.
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