Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Learning
After the flood, arts to Chaldea fell.
Denham.—Progress of Learning, Line 13.
To Egypt from Chaldee it travell’d,
And Fate at Memphis was unravell’d.
Churchill.—The Ghost, Book I. Line 35.
From thence did learning into Egypt pass.
Denham.—Progress of Learning, Line 16.
Thence to Greece.
Denham.—Progress of Learning, Line 21.
Thus when Eliza fill’d Britannia’s throne,
What arts, what learning was not then our own?
Then sinew’d genius strong and nervous rose
In Spenser’s numbers, and in Raleigh’s prose;
On Bacon’s lips then every science hung,
And Nature spoke from her own Shakespeare’s tongue.
Lloyd.—Prologue, 1761.
The Bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head.
Pope.—On Criticism, Part III. Line 612.
I’ll talk a word with this same learned Theban.
Shakespeare.—King Lear, Act III. Scene 4. (Lear with Kent and Edgar.)
A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Pope.—On Criticism, Part II. Line 215.
Small draughts of philosophy lead to Atheism; but larger bring back to God.
Bacon.—Ramage’s Thoughts from the French and Italian, Page 65.
O this learning! what a thing it is!
Shakespeare.—Taming of the Shrew, Act I. Scene 2. (Grumio to Lucentio.)
Learning by study must be won,
’Twas ne’er entailed from son to son.
Gay.—Fable XI. Part II.
1.Suppose we put a tax upon learning.
2.Learning, it is true, is a useless commodity, but I think we had better lay it on ignorance; for learning being the property but of a very few, and those poor ones too, I am afraid we can get little among them; whereas ignorance will take in most of the great fortunes in the kingdom.
Fielding.—The Historical Register for 1736, Act I. Scene 1.
Learning is better worth than house or land.
Crabbe.—The Borough, Letter 18.