Speaking to a learned gathering without ample knowledge is like playing a dice game without the board.§
An uneducated man desiring to be eloquent is like a breastless woman longing to be feminine.§
Even the ignorant will be considered wise if they refrain from speaking in the presence of the learned.§
However excellent an untaught man’s knowledge may be, erudite men will never accept it.§
An unschooled man’s self-conceit will shrivel the moment he speaks to an assembly.§
Like unproductive barren land is the man who has neglected learning. All that can be said about him is that he exists.§
The handsome charm of him whose knowledge is neither subtle nor penetrating is like that of a painted clay doll.§
Even more wretched than a learned man’s poverty is the unlearned man’s wealth.§
Though he is humbly born, a lettered man’s nobility transcends that of the illiterate nobleman.§
As men are to wild beasts, so are the masters of brilliant texts to other men. §