On the other hand, having to learn from men by reading, teaching, contact, appreciate the sense of this golden rule inserted by St. Thomas in the middle of his Sixteen Precepts: “Do not consider from whom you hear things, but entrust to your memory everything good that is said.” … We do not live by memory, we use our memory to live. Engrave on your mind whatever can help you to conceive or carry out a project, whatever your soul can assimilate, whatever can serve your purpose, vivify your inspiration, and sustain your work. As for the rest, consign it to oblivion.
–A.G. Sertillanges, O.P., The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods, translated by Mary Ryan, 134, 175
