43 quotes
Our age has robbed millions of the simplicity of ignorance, and has so far failed to lift them to the simplicity of wisdom.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
Bookes give no wisdom where none was before,
But where some is, there reading makes it more.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to an idealised past.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
Prayer is petition, intercession, adoration, and contemplation; great saints and mystics have agreed on this definition. To stop short at petition is to pray only in a crippled fashion.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
Emotional chaos is not pleasant; distillation of that chaos afterward may perhaps be pleasant in some of its aspects, and undoubtedly gives pleasure to others.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
There is no democracy in the world of intellect, and no democracy of taste.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
We live in a world where bulk is equated with quality.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
The idea that a wise man must be solemn is bred and preserved among people who have no idea what wisdom is, and can only respect whatever makes them feel inferior.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
Art lies in understanding some part of the dark forces and bringing them under the direction of reason.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
We all have slumbering realms of sensibility which can be coaxed into wakefulness by books.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
The quality of what is said inevitably influences the way in which it is said, however inexperienced the writer.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
Thought and reason, unless matched by feelings, are empty, delusive things.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
If you are an intellectual, your best course is to relax and enjoy it.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
Do they show us the future as it matures in the womb of the present?
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
I do not trust any advice which is given in bad prose.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
There are, one presumes, tone-deaf readers.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
There is no reason to suppose that people today feel less than their grandfathers, but there is good reason to think that they are less able to read in a way which makes them feel.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
Foolish people laugh at those readers a century ago who wept over the novels of Dickens. Is it a sign of superior intellect to read anything and everything unmoved, in a grey, unfeeling Limbo?
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
Any enjoyment or profit we get from life, we get Now; to kill Now is to abridge our own lives.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)
This is, after all, a book about reading, and the kind of reader I am addressing does not care primarily about being in fashion.
A Voice from the Attic (1960)