Education And Virtue

Ἐιπέ τις τῷ μακαρίῳ Ἀρσενίῳ· Πῶς ἡμεὶς ἀπὸ τοσαύτης παιδεύσεως καὶ σοφίας οὐδὲν ἔχομεν, οὖτοι δὲ οἱ ἀγροῖκοι καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι τοσαύτας ἀρετὰς κέκτηνται; Λέγει αὐτῷ ὁ ἀββᾶς Ἀρσένιος· Ἡμεὶς ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ κόσμου παιδεύσεως οὐδὲν ἔχομεν· οὖτοι δὲ οἱ ἀγροὶκοι καὶ Αἰγύπτοι ἀπὸ τῶν ἰδίων πόνων ἐκτήσαντο τὰς ἀρετὰς. ᾽Αποφθεγματα των ἀγιων γεροντων, Παλλαδιος Source: Migne PG 65.88d-89a

Someone said to the blessed Arsenius, 'How is it that we for all our education and knowledge have nothing, yet these peasants and Egyptians have acquired such virtue?' Father Arsenius said to him, 'We have nothing from our worldly education, but these peasants and Egyptians by their own travails have acquired virtue.' Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Palladius of Galatia