The Hero As A Man of Letters

If we think of it, all that a university, or finest highest school can do for us, is still what the first school began doing, -teach us to read. We learn to read, in various languages, in various sciences; we learn the alphabet and letters of all manner of Books. But the place where we are to get knowledge, even theoretic knowledge, is the Books themselves! It depends on what we read, after all the manner of professors have done their best for us. The true University of these days is a collection of Books.
-Thomas Carlyle