Is Too Much Knowledge Dangerous? A Question Sparked by a Quiet Line in The Crown
Is Too Much Knowledge Dangerous? A Question Sparked by a Quiet Line in The Crown I wasn’t sitting down to think about philosophy or ancient wisdom when the thought first lodged itself in my mind. I was watching The Crown, letting it play in the background the way you do with familiar series, when a line attributed to Winston Churchill stopped me in my tracks. The idea was simple, almost thrown away in conversation: too much knowledge can be dangerous. It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t framed as a warning. But it stayed with me long after the episode moved on. What struck me was how quietly the line landed — and how much weight it carried. It wasn’t about censorship or secrecy. It felt more like an acknowledgement. A recognition that knowing things changes people, and not always in ways that are easy to carry. The more I sat with it, the more I realized this wasn’t a modern idea at all. It’s ancient. Deeply human. And strangely relevant to the world we’re living in now. We tend to tre...
