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Books are the friends of solitude. They develop individuality and freedom. In solitary reading a man who is seeking himself has some chance of finding himself.

— Georges Duhamel Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters (1937)

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More quotes by Georges Duhamel

Culture is at once the expression and the reward of an effort, and any system of civilization which tends to relax effort will suffer a corresponding depreciation of culture.

Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters (1937)

For many people in the future, radio will take the place of an inner life.

Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters (1937)

In books may be found the recipes for manufacture of a steam-engine alongside the recipes for daily living—the prescriptions for the mind and the heart.

Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters (1937)

What a teacher imparts by word of mouth is nothing in comparison with what he teaches us to get for ourselves from books.

Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters (1937)

Just as we say “listening and hearing,” “looking and seeing,” so we ought to have two expressions to distinguish active reading from passive.

Défense des Lettres [In Defense of Letters (1937)

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Georges Duhamel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.