The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Tag Tag Reading
In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter) who didn’t read all the time—none, zero. You’d be amazed how much Warren reads—and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I’m a book with a couple of legs sticking out.
Charlie Munger Poor Charlie’s Almanack · 2005

Quotes

“Reading was the only amusement I allowed myself.”

Benjamin Franklin · The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 1771-1790 · Primary source

“If you cannot read them [books], at any rate handle them and, as it were, fondle them. Peer into them. Let them fall open where they will. Read on from the first sentence that arrests the eye. Then turn to another. Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas. Set them back on their shelves with your own hands. Arrange them on your own plan, so that if you do not know what is in them, you at least know where they are. If they cannot be your friends, let them at any rate be your acquaintances. If they cannot enter the circle of your life, do not deny them at least a nod of recognition.”

Winston Churchill · Painting as a Pastime, 1948 · Primary source

“Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · The American Scholar, 1837 · Primary source

“The three practical rules, then, which I have to offer, are: 1. Never read any book that is not a year old. 2. Never read any but famed books. 3. Never read any but what you like.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Books, 1870 · Primary source

“In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends, but they are imprisoned by an enchanter in these paper and leathern boxes; and though they know us, and have been waiting two, ten, or twenty centuries for us.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Books, 1870 · Primary source

“I do not hesitate to read all the books I have named, and all good books, in translations. What is really best in any book is translatable—any real insight or broad human sentiment.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Books, 1870 · Primary source

“In comparing the number of good books with the shortness of life, many might well be read by proxy, if we had good proxies.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Books, 1870 · Primary source

“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.”

Henry David Thoreau · Walden, 1849 · Primary source

“I do not remember a time since I have been capable of loving books that I have not loved Shakespeare.”

Helen Keller · The Story of My Life, 1903 · Primary source

“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my bookfriends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness. The things I have learned and the things I have been taught seem of ridiculously little importance compared with their large loves and heavenly charities.”

Helen Keller · The Story of My Life, 1903 · Primary source

Works

Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1870
Books

An examination of reading and literary judgement, arguing for selective attention to enduring books, independent thought and active engagement with authors.

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Self-reliance 49 Time 20 Learning 19 Discipline 19 Curiosity 19 Knowledge 18 Attention 11 Books 10 Independent thought 8 Leisure 7 Independent judgement 7 Self-education 5 Intellectual freedom 5 Lifelong learning 4 Intellectual growth 4 Libraries 3 Intellectual independence 3 Inspiration 3 Book selection 2 Human experience 2 Ideas 2 Interpretation 2 Intellectual discipline 2 Literary judgement 2 Literary reputation 1 Personal taste 1 Authors 1 Cultural memory 1 Translation 1 Literary value 1 Summaries 1 Trusted judgement 1 Intellectual curiosity 1 Cultural inheritance 1 Classical literature 1 Personal transformation 1 Shakespeare 1 Literary appreciation 1 Accessibility 1 Inclusion 1 Classics 1