CULTIVATE THOSE WHO CAN TEACH YOU.
Let friendly association be a school of knowledge, and conversation teach you culture -- making your friends your masters, and fusing the task of learning with the pleasures of conversation. Alternate enjoyment with instruction, gaining by the approval with which your remarks are received, and adding to your knowledge from what you hear. Remember that, just as we may learn from others, others may learn from us. We are always attracted to others by our own interest, but in this case it is of a higher kind. Seek the company of notable men, whose association my offer valuable instruction. Many men of distinction have reputations for discretion, not because they themselves are oracles of greatness, but because the company they keep is in itself a gracious academy of wisdom. --Baltasar Gracian |
