Believe one who knows: you will find more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which can never learn from the masters.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1641 – 1712)
Random thoughts and photos of my journey through life…
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Believe one who knows: you will find more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you that which can never learn from the masters.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1641 – 1712)
Tags: Attingham Park, National Trust, Tree, Trees
12 Comments CherryPie on Apr 14th 2013
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What a gorgeous spring image. I nod my head and say ‘YES’ to that wonderful quote!
I am glad the image I chose works with the words for you.
It comes as no surprise to me that a St. Bernard would prefer to sniff around a tree or a pile of stones!


In my experience they prefer woods to books anyday.
Actually if you look at the date – circa 17C – I don’t expect there were many books around anyway.
Much more fun to be had in the woods!
Cheers….B
I think it is a different Bernard and I don’t think he was carrying a tiny barrel of brandy around his neck
There are lots of written texts from that era, but perhaps ‘books’ is not the correct way to describe them.
There is more learning from nature, if we know how to look
What a lovely field!
It looks rather nice with the yellow in it doesn’t it?
I like your thought for the week Cherie…
but i spent the weekend watching the Masters golf tournament…
an Australian won for the first time in its 77 years….
your picture today looks a bit like the golf course except they had cut all the lovely dandelions down
….peter:)
I definitely head for the woods any chance I get, Cherry, so maybe there’s something to that quote after all?!
Are those dandelions or buttercups?? The latter, I hope.
I think they are dandelions, but I can’t be sure…
“One who knows” is the whole issue here. Who is one who knows? Many claim the epithet but few actually do. There is One in a certain Book though.
Bernard of Clairvaux is ‘the one who knows’-

“Believe me, you will find more lessons in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you what you cannot learn from masters.”
-Epistola CVI, sect. 2; translation from Edward Churton The Early English Church ([1840] 1841) p. 324.
Thank you
I have now found a copy
http://archive.org/stream/theearlyenglishc00churuoft#page/336/mode/2up