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Lactantius on Knowing a Little

Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius, cited by Denis-Luc Frayssinous in A Defense of Christianity (1836), pp. 61-2. The Works of Lactantius.

Among philosophers some have pretended that man might know every thing, — these are madmen; others that he could know nothing, — these men were not more wise: the former have given too much to man, the latter too little; both the one and the other have rushed into excess. Where then is wisdom? She consists in not believing that you know every thing — that is the attribute of God alone; in not pretending that you know nothing — that is the property of brutes: between these two extremes there is a medium which is appropriated for man — it is knowledge mixed up with darkness and tempered with ignorance.