The Less You Know

the more you talk:

"Parmi d'aver per lunghe esperienze osservato, tale esser la condizione umana intorno alle cose intelletuali, che quanto altri meno e ne intende e ne sa, tanot più risolutamente voglia discorrene; e che, all'incontro, la moltitudine delle cose conusciute ed intese renda più lento ed irresoluto al sentenziare circa qualche novità." -- Galileo, Il saggiatore

It seems to me through long experience observing, such is the human condition regarding intellectual matters, that the less one is familiar with and knows things, the more one wishes to discuss them; and that, on the contrary, the more numerous are things one knows and understands the more hesitant and irresolute one is in declaiming about something new. (Translation mine: It has the sense of the passage, I am sure, but perhaps it is not exact in some spots.)

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