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A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man.

— Goncourt brothers

Un livre n'est jamais un chef-d'œuvre, il le devient. Le génie est le talent d'un homme mort.

Original text (French)

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More quotes by Goncourt brothers

If there is a God, atheism must strike Him as less of an insult than religion.

The art of pleasing consists in never speaking of oneself and always talking to others of themselves. Every one is aware of this, yet how often is it forgotten.

In the language of the bourgeoisie, the grandeur of the words is in direct proportion to the pettiness of the sentiments.

Critics must have been created on the seventh day. Because if God had created them on the first day, what on earth would they have done?

There are two great currents in the history of humanity: baseness, which makes conservatives; and envy, which makes revolutionaries.

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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)

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