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Full Idea
It is not the man who thinks he knows it all, that can bring other men to feel their need for learning, and it is only a deep sense that one is miserably ignorant that can spur one on in the toilsome path of learning.
Gist of Idea
We are not inspired by other people's knowledge; a sense of our ignorance motivates study
Source
Charles Sanders Peirce (Reasoning and the Logic of Things [1898], IV)
Book Ref
Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Reasoning and the Logic of Things', ed/tr. Ketner,K.L. [Harvard 1992], p.171