I once did hold it, as our statists do, A baseness to write fair, and laboured much How to forget that learning; but, sir, now It did me yeoman's service.

I once did hold it, as our statists do,
A baseness to write fair, and laboured much
How to forget that learning; but, sir, now
It did me yeoman’s service.

– William Shakespeare

Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 2. Hamlet once thought it foolish to write in the ornamental style like the state bureaucrats, and worked hard to forget what had he learned of that style. But that learning became useful to him, when he replaced Claudius’ letter ordering his execution with his own forgery.

William Shakespeare Quotes