The Basics of Knowledge

The whole usefulness of education consists only in the memory of it.

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From Hugh of St. Victor’s (c. 1096–1141) De Tribus Maximis Circumstantiis Gestorum, translated and quoted in full in The Medieval Craft of Memory:

Indeed the whole usefulness of education consists only in the memory of it, for just as having heard something does not profit one who cannot understand, likewise having understood is not valuable to one who either will not or cannot remember. Indeed it was profitable to have listened only insofar as it caused us to have understood, and to have understood insofar as it was retained. But these are as it were basics for knowledge, which, if they are firmly impressed in your memory, open up all the rest readily.