...no obligation; and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College:...they proved the fourteen months the most idle and unprotitable of my whole life. Memoirs of M if Ufe ( i 796) ch. î 18 Their dull and deep potations...

...by Edward Gibbon, who was an undergraduate there in 1752 and 1753. As he wrote in his Autobiography: I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College; they...most idle and unprofitable of my whole life .... The fellows or monks of my time were decent easy men, who supinely enjoyed the gifts of the founder; their...

...no obligation, and she will as chearfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College:...idle and unprofitable of my whole life. . . . the greater part of the public professors have for these many years, given up altogether even the pretence...

...attended, fared a little better than Eton in his hands, though he did quote Gibbon on his time there at Magdalen College ("they proved the fourteen months the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life" [p. 26]). Still, Banks, much to his own credit and industry, thrived there, furthering his deep interest...

...exercises must be proportioned to the lowest degree of ability and application. I spent fourteen montbs at Magdalen College; they proved the fourteen months the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life. By the habit of early rising I always secured a sacred portion of the day, and many scattered moments...

...Knight. Once settled in London the thin-lipped, beak-nosed 'The same college castigated by Edward Gibbon: "I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College; they...the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life." Knight, a man very conscious of his own dignity and rightful place in the world, promptly set about...

...no obligation; and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College;...the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life.' Of course, his fabled anti-clericalism, accentuated by a brief conversion to Catholicism, had a good...

...VLADIMIR NABOKOV Education is too important to be left solely to the educators. — FRANCIS KEPPEL I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College: they...months the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life. —EDWARD GIBBON, FROM HIS BOOK MEMOIRS OF MY LIFE (1796) To my astonishment I was informed on leaving...

...obligation ; and she will as chearfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College;...to believe that Nature had disqualified me for all litterary pursuits. The specious and ready excuse of my tender age, imperfect preparation, and hasty...

...of another breed how many have after brief experience withdrawn in disgust, saying like Gibbon : " I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College ; they...the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life!" How many others have idled through four collegiate years, dissipating day by day the energies meant...