I will give you two propositions for the year 1778: a little learning was a dangerous thing, and so was being an American. It is to your everlasting credit that for over a century and three quarters, ...

Only when one has lost all curiosity about the future has one reached the age to write an autobiography. Evelyn Waugh was only 60 when he wrote this downbeat opening to his memoir, A Little Learning.

Nineteenth-century English poet Alexander Pope: “A little learning is a dangerous thing.” Corollary: “Omission of facts is deceitful.” Together, both expressions point to today’s ...