"I make not my head a grave, but a treasury of knowledge; I intend no monopoly, but a community in learning; I study not for my own sake only, but for theirs that study not for themselves; I envy no man that knows more than myself, but pity them that know less. I instruct no man as an exercise of my knowledge, or with an intent other than to nourish and keep it alive in my own head, and beget and propagate it in his; and, in the midst of all my endeavors, there is but one thought that dejects me --- that my acquired talents must perish with myself, nor can be legacied among my honored friends." 
Brown.

  " In the seventh century there came to the city of Alexandria an old man of sixty in a monk's garb. He first secured the names of all the abandoned women of the city. He obtained wok for himself, and at night, taking the wages of the day, went to one of these women, and after supping with her, gave her his day’s earnings saying, "I give thee this that thou mayest spend one night without sin." Then he passed the night praying for the woman with many tears. Going forth he exacted the promise that his visit should not be revealed while he lived. Much scandal soon grew out of these visits. The monk refused to give any account of it saying, "There is one Judge and one day of judgment, wherein every man shall give account of his own works." He bore the reproach and suspicion without murmuring, neither letting his benevolent work be known, lest the houses of ill-fame should be closed against him, nor desisting from it. At last, coming one morning from a harlot's door, a man saw him and struck him, saying,

"How, you rascal, do you outrage Christ by not mending your wicked ways." The monk went to his chamber to die, and the man entered the harlot's house and there learned of his noble work. He was struck with contrition and went into the streets proclaiming how he and the people had wronged the monk. A crowed followed the man as he went to beg the monk's pardon. They found him kneeling with hands clasped cold in death. Before him lay the text in writing, "Judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart." At his funeral great numbers who had been reformed by him, walked in procession before his body, bearing lamps and candles crying, "We have lost our deliverer and instructor," and narrating their rescue through his prayers and zeal for their souls. Thus was manifest how great a work he had done. This is the authentic story of St. Vitalis."

  "To tell the truth, family and poverty have done more to support me than I have to support them. They have compelled me to make exertions that I hardly thought myself capable of; and often, when on the eve of despairing, they have forced me, like a coward in a corner, to fight like a hero, not for myself, but for my wife and little ones."      Power.

  "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

  "When we consider Paul, let us look deeply into his mission, in order to adopt more fully the spirit of his mind. His daily walks through Rome exposed him to its many splendors: but he dived into the lanes and suburbs on which no glory of history is shed; and found the haunts of the scorned Hebrew: they entered the degraded revels of the slave: they sought out the poor foreigner, attracted by the city's wealth, and perishing amid its desolation: they crept to the pallet on which the fever and poverty were stretched, offering the hand of restoration, and whispering the lessons of peace. This was his noblest dignity: not that he publicly pleaded before princes, but that he secretly encouraged the outcast and the friendless; not that he paced the forum, but that he lingered in the dens of wretchedness, and refreshed the hardened heart with gentle sympathies, and connected the alien with the fraternity of men, and shed upon the darkest lot a confidence in God and a light of hope. And what is true of this great apostle is true of the religion which he spread, and which we profess. Its true dignity is, that unseen it has ever gone about doing good."

James Martineau.

"We must ever grow from darkness and the earth; enough if the blossom and the fruit be worthy of the sunshine and the heaven." Martineau. 

We will grow from darkness and earth, from decay and waste, it is the cycle of nature. We hope, regardless of our past, we grow and make our lives with the materials we have; no one will rescue and remove our past, but God will guide us to use our lot in life as it is, with its past, to improve our future.