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If a little knowledge ...

Posted by ESC on November 18, 2005

In Reply to: If a little knowledge ... posted by robin johnson on November 18, 2005

: Looking for the phrase
: "if a little knowlegde is a dangerous thing, who knows so much as to be out of danger"
: which I think comes from Lord acton about 1880+
: does anyone know ?

LITTLE LEARNING IS A DANGEROUS THING, A - "The English poet Alexander Pope rendered this saying in the current form in a line from 'An Essay on Criticism' .But the English novelist Thomas Huxley, grandfather of Aldous Huxley, posed the more difficult question of just how much learning is enough. In 'Science and Culture' , he wrote: 'If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?'.." From Wise Words and Wives' Tales: The Origins, Meanings and Time-Honored Wisdom of Proverbs and Folk Sayings Olde and New; by Stuart Flexner and Doris Flexner (Avon Books, New York, 1993).

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