Within, Socrates said, “I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.” While it might look a little confusing at first, in modern English, Socrates said that he admits to not knowing all things and is, therefore, wiser than the man he is talking about, who believes that he already knows everything.

A more commonly used translation puts it, "although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is – for he knows nothing, and thinks he knows. I neither know nor think I know" [from the Benjamin Jowett translation].

Not to know is not shameful. Someone who does not know, and is aware of their ignorance, can do something about their lack of knowledge and start to study and learn and improve themselves. The true enemy of knowledge is the ignorance that we don’t even perceive as such. If we are caught in the illusion that we know something that we actually don’t know, then it will be much harder for us to improve.