"Believe me, as my own experience," once said St. Bernard, "you will find more in the woods than in books; the forests and rocks will teach you more than you can learn from the greatest Masters."
I quote this, as sent to me by a friend; but the only passage at all approaching to it which I can verify is the following:
"Quidquid in Scripturis valet, quidquid in eis spiritualiter sentit, maxime in silvis et in agris meditando et orando se confitetur accepisse, et in hoc nullos aliquando se magistros habuisse nisi quercus et fagos joco illo suo gratioso inter amicos dicere solet."
See the appendix to Mabillon's edition of
Bernardi Opera
, ii. 1072,
S. Bernardi Vita, et Res Gesta, auctore Guilielmo
.—Ed.