Education from Frank McCourt

The late Frankie McCourt, author of two memoirs including Angela's Ashes, has the best quote I've ever heard about education and learning. From his Pulitzer-winning AA, he remembers his grade school teacher Hoppy O'Halloran's advice from his Limerick, Ireland public school:

"You have to study and learn so that you can make up your own mind about history and everything else, but you can't make up an empty mind. Stock your mind, stock your mind. It is your house of treasure and no one in the world can interfere with it. If you won the Irish sweepstakes and and bought a house that needed furniture would you fill it with bits and pieces of rubbish? Your mind is your house and if you fill it with rubbish from cinemas (and today's video screens) it will rot in your head. You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace."