Ben Sira 21:9-19

9 A group of people who have no respect for the Law is like a pile of kindling; they will meet a fiery end.
10 The road that sinners walk is smooth and paved, but it leads to the world of the dead.
11 Whoever wants to keep the Law must learn what the Law means. If you fear the Lord in every sense of the term, you will have wisdom.
12 You have to be intelligent to learn anything; but there is such a thing as just pretending to be intelligent, which only makes people bitter.
13 A wise person's knowledge is like a river that never runs dry, like an everflowing stream of good advice.
14 A fool, on the other hand, has a mind like a jar with a hole in it; anything he learns is soon lost.
15 When an educated person hears something that shows insight, it stimulates his mind and leads him on to other ideas. But when someone who is satisfied with ignorance hears it, he won't like it, and will forget it as soon as he can.
16 Listening to a foolish person talk is like traveling with a heavy load on your back, but it is a pleasure to hear what intelligent people have to say.
17 The assembly will be eager to hear from an intelligent person and will take his opinion seriously.
18 To an ignorant person, wisdom is as useless as a house gone to ruin. He has never even thought about the things he is so sure of.
19 To a person without any sense, an education is like handcuffs,
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.