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Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.
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“Education, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding.”

Ambrose Bierce

Source
The Devil's Dictionary
Date
1911
Meaning

Meaning of “Education, n. That which discloses to the wise…”

Bierce’s satirical definition suggests that learning may deepen understanding in reflective people while giving the unreflective additional ways to conceal ignorance.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Devil’s Dictionary, entry “Education,” Project Gutenberg #972. This is a deliberately cynical comic dictionary definition and should be read as satire rather than as a literal educational theory.

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DeepEducation Quotes About Teaching & Intellectual FormationFunnyThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionWisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living WellIntelligenceKnowledgeSelf-Awareness
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“One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind.”

Arthur Schopenhauer · Essays of Schopenhauer — On Books and Reading · 1851
Meaning & context

The deliberately severe contrast argues that reading quality matters because repeated exposure influences the habits and material of thought.

Source details

Essay “On Books and Reading,” public-domain English text.

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“All men by nature desire to know.”

Aristotle · Metaphysics · c. 350 BCE
Meaning & context

Aristotle treats the desire for knowledge as a basic human tendency, giving curiosity a foundational place in the movement from perception toward understanding.

Source details

Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I, Chapter I, W. D. Ross translation (1908), validated Wikisource scan leaf 21. 'All men by nature desire to know' opens the work before the discussion of sensation, memory, experience, art and knowledge. This remains ancient philosophy mediated by translation, not a modern empirical finding about cognition.

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I neither know nor think that I know.
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“I neither know nor think that I know.”

Plato · Apology · c. 399 BCE setting
Voice: Dialogue speaker · Socrates
Meaning & context

Socrates locates a small advantage in recognizing the boundary of his own knowledge: uncertainty is intellectually healthier than possessing the same ignorance while mistaking it for wisdom.

Source details

Plato, Apology, Benjamin Jowett translation, Project Gutenberg #1656. Socrates says this after examining a politician whom others considered wise; the wording is dialogue speech attributed to Socrates within Plato’s work, not a claim that Socrates knew literally nothing.

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I am not young enough to know everything.
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“I am not young enough to know everything.”

J. M. Barrie · The Admirable Crichton · 1902
Meaning & context

Barrie reverses the cliché that age brings complete wisdom, making youthful certainty—not age—the comic claim to omniscience.

Source details

The Admirable Crichton, Act I, Project Gutenberg #3490. Ernest Woolley repeatedly delivers “I am not young enough to know everything” as a self-consciously clever epigram while Agatha, Treherne and the others struggle to understand it; Crichton later says he has no idea what Ernest meant. It remains fictional comic dialogue rather than J. M. Barrie autobiography or a factual claim about age and knowledge.

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He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.
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“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.”

John Stuart Mill · On Liberty · 1859
Meaning & context

Understanding a position requires serious contact with competing arguments; familiarity with only one side can produce confidence without real comprehension.

Source details

On Liberty, Chapter 2; Mill argues for open discussion because opposing views expose weaknesses and sharpen understanding.

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Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.
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“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

Confucius · The Analects of Confucius · c. 5th century BCE
Meaning & context

Study and reflection are treated as partners: information without examination is shallow, while speculation without learning can drift away from reality.

Source details

Analects 2:15 in James Legge’s translation; the saying balances study with independent reflection.