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Whoever converses much among the old books, will be something hard to please among the new.

— Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet Miscellanea (1690)

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More quotes by Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet

Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.

Miscellanea (1690)

It is a mistake to suppose that God is only, or even chiefly, concerned with religion.

No clap of thunder in a fair frosty day could astonish the world more than [England's] declaration of war against Holland in 1672.

When all is done, human life is, at the greatest, and the best, but like a froward child, that must be played with and humored a little to keep it quiet till it falls asleep, and then the care is over.

All the precepts of Christianity agree to teach and command us to moderate our passions, to temper our affections towards all things below; to be thankful for the possession, and patient under the loss whenever he that gave it shall see fit to take away.

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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: Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.