Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Denham warns against digging into secrets that are hidden too deeply or forbidden to know.
In plain terms
Don't try to find things that are meant to stay hidden.
What can you take from it?
Respect boundaries; some knowledge is not meant for you.

Where it applies

  • researching sensitive topics
  • personal inquiry
  • philosophical study

Putting it to work

  • knowing when to stop
  • respecting privacy

Questions to consider

  • What secrets should remain hidden?
  • How do you decide what not to know?

Another view

Some discoveries require pushing past these very boundaries.

More from John Denham

  1. Youth, what man's age is like to be doth show, We may our ends by our beginnings know.

    Permalink to quote #6
  2. Though with those streams he no resemblance hold, Whose foam is amber and their gravel gold; His genuine and less guilty wealth t' explore, Search not his bott…

    Permalink to quote #8
  3. Books should to one of these four ends conduce, For wisdom, piety, delight, or use.

    Permalink to quote #5

Related quotes

  1. But let a man know that there are things to be known, of which he is ignorant, and it is so much carved out of his domain of universal knowledge.

    Horace MannHorace Mann quote #4
  2. It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers.

    James ThurberJames Thurber quote #6
  3. It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.

    Eugene IonescoEugene Ionesco quote #10