The above has been one of my favorite sayings for decades.  I thought it was a Chinese proverb, and I thought it had different levels of meaning.

Well … I learned tonight that it is a misquote; it was originally written as “A little learning is a dangerous thing.”  It is also not Chinese — it was written by Alexander Pope in his “Essay on Criticism” in 1711.  (And the “essay” is actually a book-length poem.)