Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield 
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman, 1752 [EPUB ebook] 

pub One.info present you this new edition. MY DEAR FRIEND: Laziness of mind, or inattention, are as great enemies to knowledge as incapacity; for, in truth, what difference is there between a man who will not, and a man who cannot be informed? This difference only, that the former is justly to be blamed, the latter to be pitied. And yet how many there are, very capable of receiving knowledge, who from laziness, inattention, and incuriousness, will not so much as ask for it, much less take the least pains to acquire it!