Long books, when read, are usually overpraised, because the reader wants to convince others and himself that he has not wasted his time. Commonplace Book (1985)
N.B. this book and pensées not important and the temptation to mistake them for Creation must be resisted. Commonplace Book (1985)
I don't think literature will be purged until its philosophic pretentiousness is extruded, and I shant live to see that purge, nor perhaps when it has happened will anything survive. Commonplace Book (1985)
The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves. Two Cheers for Democracy (1951)
[...] it is now only in letters I write what I feel: not in literature any more, and I seldom say it, because I keep trying to be amusing. Commonplace Book (1985)