#didascalicon

Le grand principe de la vertu, c’est que l’âme s'exerce à se passer des biens mondains et périssables, afin de pouvoir un jour les abandonner. Il est encore tendre, l’homme pour qui la patrie a de la douceur ; fort, celui pour qui toute terre est patrie ; mais l’homme accompli, c’est celui qui vit le monde entier comme un exil. 

Delicatus ille est adhuc cui patria dulcís est, fortis autem cui omne solum patria est, perfectus vero cui mundus totus exilium est. (The man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land.)

Optimus Prime vs the English Major

"Hugh [of St. Victor] begins [the Didascalicon], attractively enough, by rejecting intellectual snobbery: 'I myself never looked down on anything that had to do with education, but. . . often learned many things that seemed to others to be a sort of joke or just nonsense.' He commends this attitude to other readers, chiefly because people who begin by occupying their minds with small and trivial things can use what they know as a foundation, or a stepping stone, that allows them to ascend to higher things. The person just beginning to bring some discipline to his or her life as a reader need not be ashamed at reading non-masterpieces, or at only being able to focus on reading a few pages at a time. Let that person, then, begin with short stories or essays and work toward longer works that demand extensive attention. Indeed, it's vital as a reader to move forward in an orderly way (ordinate procedere debet): 'the man who moves along step by step is the man who moves along best, not like some who fall head over heels when they wish to make a great leap ahead.'