Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful, it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you. You open your safe and find ashes.

Similarly, the impulse to keep to yourself what you have learned is not only shameful; it is destructive. Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you.

What's the point of having great knowledge and keeping them all to yourself?

The only things we can keep are the things we freely give to God. What we try to keep for ourselves is just what we are sure to lose.

I know it’s an awful temptation, the hankerin’ to show off your learnin’. I’ve felt it myself, but I always resist it. I know the awful consequences. <small>p. 53</small>

A little Learning is a dangerous Thing.

Aren't you ashamed to keep for yourself just the remnants...to devote to wisdom only that time which can't be spent on business?

Self-contradiction is made culturally to be shameful, a matter that can prove disastrous in science.

To make yourself, it is also necessary to destroy yourself.

When I try to teach, as I do sometimes, I am appalled by the results, which seem a little more than inconsequential, because sometimes the teaching appears to succeed. When this happens I find that the results are damaging. It seems to cause the individual to distrust his own experience, and to stifle significant learning. Hence I have come to feel that the outcomes of teaching are either unimportant or hurtful.