Does there, I wonder, exist a being who has read all, or approximately all, that the person of average culture is supposed to have read, and that not to have read is a social sin? If such a being does exist, surely he is an old, a very old man.

The great advantage of being in a rut is that when one is in a rut, one knows exactly where one is.

I will never cease advising my friends and enemies to read poetry before anything.

Falsehood often lurks upon the tongue of him, who, by self-praise, seeks to enhance his value in the eyes of others.

Does there, I wonder, exist a being who has read all, or approximately all, that the person of average culture is supposed to have read, and that not to have read is a social sin? If such a being does exist, surely he is an old, a very old man.

As a rule people don't collect books; they let books collect themselves.

Literature exists so that where one man has lived finely ten thousand may afterward live finely