Hardships and Rewards

"But this spring whose crystalline waters stream over particles of pure gold does not run in a flat riverbed accessible to all; rather, it flows in a narrow, rock-bound valley surrounded by gigantic ideas, at the entrances to which the great mind stands guard like the cherubim with their swords, turning back anyone seeking entry merely for the price of a fleeting intellectual pastime." ~ some old military journal from 1832.