Edgar Bronfman, Sr.

During my many years in international business and public life, I have had the good fortune of sitting down for lunch with people with whom I completely disagreed, in practice and principle: Soviet communists, heads of state from various unsavory regimes, benighted religious figures, corrupt business leaders.

Canadian Businessman

Henry Louis Gates

It's important to debunk the myths of Africa being this benighted continent civilized only when white people arrived. In fact, Africans had been creators of culture for thousands of years before. These were very intelligent, subtle and sophisticated people, with organized societies and great art.

American Critic

William S. Burroughs

Gentle reader, the Fountain of Youth is radioactive, and those who imbibe its poisonous heavy waters will suffer the hideous fate of decaying metal. Yet almost without exception, the wretched idiot inhabitants of our benighted planet would gulp down this radioactive excrement if it were offered.

American Writer

James McGreevey

Inauthenticity is endemic in American politics today. The political backrooms where I spent much of my career were just as benighted as my personal life, equally crowded with shadowy strangers and compromises, truths I hoped to deny. I lived not in one closet but in many.

American Politician

James Buchan

Europe and North America, we are told, are less dependent on energy-intensive heavy industry than in the 1960s and 1970s. It seems we squeeze more GDP out of a barrel of oil than in those benighted days.

British Novelist

Marcel Proust

The paradoxes of today are the prejudices of tomorrow, since the most benighted and the most deplorable prejudices have had their moment of novelty when fashion lent them its fragile grace.

French Author

Will Self

In our benighted age, when films about amusement park rides and electronic fidgets scoop the honours, perhaps Hollywood redux is the best we can hope for.

English Author

Eli Yishai

I sound like a racist, a benighted man or a xenophobe, but I'm motivated by love for my country and the knowledge that I don't have another country.

Israeli Politician

Implies a critical view of someone's lack of knowledge or awareness.

Negative Connotation

Using 'benighted' suggests the speaker feels superior in knowledge.

Implicit Judgment

It can imply backwardness, as if stuck in a 'dark age' of knowledge.

Historical Usage

It's often used to describe literal situations involving a lack of light.

Literal Darkness

Can describe being caught in darkness due to unforeseen circumstances.

Unexpected Predicament

Sometimes used metaphorically to mean 'left in the dark' about a situation.

Benighted

Negative Connotation

Implicit Judgment

Historical Usage

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