Keep * * * thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend.
Books Quotes
Samuel Johnson is on this page more than once for good reason. In The Rambler (1750) he wrote that no place gives a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library. Boswell (1791) has him saying that a man ought to read just as inclination leads him, because what he reads as a task will do him little good. Alberto Manguel, Emerson and Northrop Frye are among the most-quoted writers here, which is what you would expect from people who spent their working lives reading.
Two entries are flagged as misattributed. The quip about a manuscript that is both good and original, with the good parts not original and the original parts not good, is credited to Johnson. “Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!” is credited to General Patton.
We prize books, and they prize them most who are themselves wise.
In proportion as society refines, new books must ever become more necessary.
As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you in a book.
'Tis well to borrow from the good and great;
'Tis wise to learn; 'tis God-like to create!
* * * A man of the world amongst men of letters, a man of letters amongst men of the world.
A book is a bottle thrown into the sea on which this label should be attached: Catch as catch can.
The foolish read to escape reality; the wise surrender to it.