All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price.

The saying contrasts the universal desire to be thought knowledgeable with the far rarer willingness to endure the costs that real learning entails—time, discipline, humility, and sometimes material sacrifice. It implies that “knowledge” is not a mere possession but an achievement purchased through sustained effort. Read as a moral observation, it also critiques vanity: many want the social prestige and authority that attach to learning, but recoil from the labor and self-denial required to earn it. The aphorism thus functions as a warning against superficial intellectual ambition and a call to value the process of study as much as its rewards.