On the need of the learned to respect the wisdom of ordinary people

“At one time the Abbot Arsenius was taking counsel with an old man of Egypt about his thoughts. And another, seeing him said, ‘Abbot Arsenius, how is it that thou, who art so great a scholar of Latin and Greek, dost take counsel of this common countryman?’ And he answered, ‘I have indeed apprehended the learning of the Greeks and the Latins as this world goes: but the alphabet of this countryman I have not yet been able to learn.’”

~A story from the Desert Fathers