A humble mind, eagerness to inquire, a quiet life, silent scrutiny, poverty, a foreign soil. These, for many, unlock the hidden places of learning.
—attr. Bernard of Chartres (11th-12th cen.)
This seems to have been a common saying in twelfth-century French university life. It is quoted in several places, including:
Hugh of St. Victor, The Didascalicon: A Medieval Guide to the Arts, trans. Jerome Taylor (New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1961), 94, cf. 214n61.
Blue Book Diaries 