What does this quote mean?

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

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

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

“And pause awhile from Learning to be wise;”

Johnson distinguishes accumulating learning from exercising judgment, asking the scholar to interrupt pursuit of knowledge long enough to examine what wisdom requires.

Source note: The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), Johnson’s imitation of Juvenal’s Tenth Satire; the line introduces a section on the hazards and disappointments surrounding learned ambition.

“Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge: but he that hateth reproof is brutish.”

Learning requires willingness to be corrected; rejecting every form of reproof blocks the feedback needed for growth.

Source note: Proverbs 12:1, King James Version.

“All men by nature desire to know.”

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

Source note: Metaphysics, Book I, chapter 1, W. D. Ross translation; the work opens with this claim before discussing sensation, memory, experience, art, and knowledge.

“Angry people are not always wise.”

Strong emotion can narrow judgment, so being certain while angry is not the same as being correct.

Source note: Pride and Prejudice; the line is preserved in the novel’s dialogue about anger, judgment, and the limits of certainty while emotions are high.

“Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.”

Facts can be acquired quickly, while judgment develops more slowly through reflection and experience.

Source note: Poem “Locksley Hall”; the contrast distinguishes readily acquired knowledge from the slower development of judgment and wisdom.