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Much reading is an oppression of the mind, and extinguishes the natural candle, which is the reason of so many senseless scholars in the world.

— William Penn Advice to his children (1699)

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More quotes by William Penn

They have a Right to censure, that have a Heart to help: The rest is Cruelty, not Justice.

Fruits of Solitude (1682)

True religion does not draw men out of the world but enables them to live better in it and excites their endeavors to mend it.

No Cross, No Crown (1682)

He that does good for good's sake seeks neither praise nor reward, though sure of both at last.

Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims (1682)

Lest, selling that noble inheritance for a poor mess of perishing pottage, you never enter into His eternal rest.

True silence is the rest of the mind, and is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.

All William Penn quotes →

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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: William Penn (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.