Fools rush in where angels fear to tread

No Place so Sacred from such Fops is barr'd, Nor is Paul's Church more safe than Paul's Church-yard: Nay, fly to Altars; there they'll talk you dead; For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.
[1711 Pope Essay on Criticism l. 625]

Rash presumption illustrates the line, ‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread’.
[1858 G. J. Mcree Iredell's Life & Correspondence II. 277]

Prying into his private affairs on the fools step in where angels principle.
[1922 Joyce Ulysses 649]

The folly of the officious is proverbial: don't rush in where angels fear to tread.
[1943 H. Mccloy Do not Disturb ii.]

‘The deceased was of—er—a forceful personality. Not over-sensitive, either, from all accounts.’ ‘Ah, I see. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.’
[1975 ‘C. Aird’ Slight Mourning xv.]

Related to: fools; ignorance

Bibliography of major proverb collections and works cited from modern editions is available here.

Ignorant or inexperienced individuals get involved in situations that wiser persons would avoid, as in I've never heard this symphony and here I am conducting it--oh well, fools rush in where angels fear to tread, or He tried to mediate their unending argument--fools rush in. This expression, so well known it is sometimes shortened as in the second example, is a quotation from Alexander Pope's Essay on Criticism (1709): "No place so sacred from such fops is barr'd ... Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead; For fools rush in where angels fear to tread."