"In the pursuit of knowledge, follow it wherever it is to be found; like a fern, it is the produce of all climates, and like coin, its circulation is not restricted to any particular class. Now, we are ignorant in youth from idleness, but we continue so in manhood from pride; for pride is less ashamed of being ignorant than of being instructed, and she looks too high to find that which very often lies beneath her.

John Locke was asked how he had contrived to accumulate a such a mine of knowledge so rich, yet so extensive and so deep: he replied that he attributed what little he knew, to not being ashamed to ask for information; and to the rule he had laid down, of conversing with all descriptions of men on those topics that chiefly formed their own peculiar professions or pursuits." Colton