A little learning is a dangerous thing

Cultural  

1. People who know only a little do not understand how little they know and are therefore prone to error. First said by Alexander Pope.

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Example Sentences

But as Pope says,— "A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again."

From Architects of Fate or, Steps to Success and Power by Marden, Orison Swett

A better poet than Boileau, and at least as good a scholar as Mr. de Sévigné, has said, "A little learning is a dangerous thing."

From Byron's Poetical Works, Volume 1 by Coleridge, Ernest Hartley

Pope says, very truly, in his "Essay on Criticism":— A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.

From Complete Project Gutenberg Earl of Chesterfield Works by Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of

How often do we hear the sciolist condemned in these words: A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or touch not the Pierian spring?

From English Literature, Considered as an Interpreter of English History Designed as a Manual of Instruction by Coppee, Henry

A little learning is a dangerous thing, but a little patronage is more so; the three Miss Browns appointed all the old maids, and carefully excluded the young ones. 

From Sketches by Boz, illustrative of everyday life and every-day people by Dickens, Charles