The more [man] knows, the more aware he is of having to acquire knowledge; that is to say that the time he loses only serves to excite him to lose more: only in a very few men of genius does insight into their own ignorance grow as they learn, and they are the only ones for whom study may be good: almost as soon as small minds have learned something, they believe they know everything, and there is no sort of foolishness which this conviction will not make them say or do.
- Rousseau's reply to King Stanislaus's comments (italicized) on his Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts
