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If you love knowledge, you will be a master of knowledge.Sandys quotes from Ascham’s Scholemaster : “Isocrates did cause to be written at the entrie of his schole, in golden letters, this golden sentence, ἐὰν ᾖς φιλομαθής, ἔσῃ πολυμαθής, which excellentlie said in Greek, is thus rudelie in English, ‘If thous lovest lerning, thou shalt attayne to moch learning.’” The words were in fact inscribed “in golden letters” over the portal to Shrewsbury School. What you have come to know, preserve by exercise; what you have not learned, seek to add to your knowledge; for it is as reprehensible to hear a profitable saying and not grasp it as to be offered a good gift by one’s friends and not accept it. Spend your leisure time in cultivating an ear attentive to discourse, for in this way you will find that you learn with ease what others have found out with difficulty.
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Believe that many precepts are better than much wealth; for wealth quickly fails us, but precepts abide through all time; for wisdom alone of all possessions is imperishable. Do not hesitate to travel a long roadEchoed unmistakably from Theog. 71-2: ἀλλὰ μετ′ ἐσθλὸν ἰὼν βουλεύεο πολλὰ μογήσας καὶ μακρὴν ποσσίν, Κύρν′, ὁδὸν ἐκτελέσας. to those who profess to offer some useful instruction; for it were a shame, when merchants cross vast seas in order to increase their store of wealth, that the young should not endure even journeys by land to improve their understanding.
