Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.

The sentence frames education as an active moral practice rather than a passive accident: knowledge comes from deliberate desire (“ardor”) sustained by steady effort (“diligence”). It implies that talent or opportunity alone is insufficient; learning requires intention, discipline, and continued attention. In a broader Enlightenment-inflected sense, it treats self-cultivation as a duty—something one chooses and works at—linking intellectual growth to character. The aphoristic balance of “sought” and “attended to” also suggests two phases of learning: pursuing instruction and then maintaining habits of study that make it stick.