Learn Everything

Ego tibi affirmare audeo nihil me umquam quod ad eruditionem pertineret contempsisse, sed  multa saepe didicisse quae aliis ioco aut deliramento similia viderentur. Memini me, dum adhuc  scholaris essem, elaborasse ut omnium rerum oculis subiectarum aut in usum venientium vocabula  scirem, perpendens libere rerum naturam illum non posse prosequi qui earundem nomina adhuc  ignoraret. Quoties sophismatum meorum, quae gratia brevitatis una vel duabus in pagina dictionibus  signaveram, a memetipso cotidianum exegi debitum, ut etiam sententiarum, quaestionum et  oppositionum omnium fere quas didiceram et solutiones memoriter tenerem et numerum! causas  saepe informavi, et, dispositis ad invicem controversiis, quod rhetoris, quod oratoris, quod sophistae  officium esset, diligenter distinxi. Calculos in numerum posui, et nigris pavimentum carbonibus  depinxi, et, ipso exemplo oculis subiecto, quae ampligonii, quae orthogonii, quae oxygonii differentia  esset, patenter demonstravi. Utrumne quadratum aequilaterum duobus in se lateribus multiplicatis  embadum impleret, utrobique procurrente podismo didici. Saepe nocturnus horoscopus ad hiberna  pervigilia excubavi. Saepe ad numerum protensum in ligno magadam ducere solebam, ut et vocum  differentiam aure perciperem, et animum pariter meli dulcedine oblectarem. Haec puerilia quidem  fuerant, sed tamen non inutilia, neque ea nunc scire stomachum meum onerat. Haec autem non tibi  replico, ut meam scientiam,  quae vel nulla vel parva est, iactitem, sed ut ostendam tibi illum  incedere aptissime qui incedit ordinate, neque ut quidam, dum magnum saltum facere volunt,  praecipitium incidunt. Sicut in virtutibus, ita in scientiis quidam gradus sunt. Sed dicis: 'multa invenio in historiis, quae nullius videntur esse utilitatis, quare in huiusmodi occupabor?' bene dicis. multa siquidem sunt in scripturis,  quae in se considerata nihil expetendum habere videntur, quae tamen si aliis quibus cohaerent  comparaveris, et in toto suo trutinare coeperis, necessaria pariter et competentia esse videbis. Alia  propter se scienda sunt, alia autem, quamvis propter se non videantur nostro labore digna, quia tamen  sine ipsis illa enucleate sciri non possunt, nullatenus debent negligenter praeteriri. Omnia disce,  videbis postea nihil esse superfluum. Coartata scientia iucunda non est. Hugonis De Sancto Victore, Didascalicon, Lib VI, Cap III

I will be so bold as to assure you that I have never have despised anything belonging to instruction, but often I have learned much which to others seemed to be as a thing laughable and foolish. I remember while I was still a schoolboy, I exerted myself that I might know the names of everything which came to my eyes or into my use, of my own volition thinking that one cannot grasp the nature of  things if one is ignorant of their names. Many times I set myself as a daily task a sophism  which for the sake of brevity I had freely jotted down on a page or two in short notes, in order to place in my memory the number of nearly all the opinions, questions, objections and the solutions which I had learned. Often I made up legal cases and with the points at issue arranged, I carefully distinguished between the ways of the rhetorician, the orator, and the sophist. I  used pebbles for numbers, and marked the floor with black lines, and by the diagram before my eyes I clearly demonstrated the differences between acute angled, right angled and obtuse angled triangles, and whether a square has the same area as a rectangle two of whose sides  are multiplied, by cutting off the length in both. I often watched the stars through the winter night. I was regularly accustomed to stringing the magada according to numerical values,  stretching them over the wood in order to perceive with the ear the difference between the tones, and also to please my heart with the sweet melody. This was all done in a youthful manner, but it  was not useless, for to know these things did not weigh on me. I do not tell these things to you that I might boast of my knowledge, which is of no or  little value, but that I might show you that the most skillful  is the most orderly, unlike certain folks who, wishing to take a great jump, fall headlong. As with the virtues, so in knowledge there are  fixed steps. But, you will say, 'I discover in the histories much which appears to be of no utility; why should I be occupied with such things?' Well said. There are in the Scriptures many things which, considered in themselves, seem not worth aspiring to, but  if you would compare them with other things connected with them, and if you would weigh them all, you will see them to be both  necessary and useful. Some things are worth knowing on their own account, but others, although  they appear to be unworthy of our labour, should not be neglected, for without them the former cannot be clearly understood. Learn everything; you will  afterwards discover that nothing is superfluous. Narrow knowledge is no delight. Hugh of St Victor, Didascalion, Book 6, Chapter 3