The art of reading is to skip judiciously. Whole libraries may be skipped in these days, when we have the results of them in our modern culture without going over the ground again.

Avowed work, even when uncongenial, is far less trying to patience than feigned pleasure.

Unless a man works he cannot find out what he is able to do.

Few of us have been so exceptionally unfortunate as not to find, in our own age, some experienced friend who has helped us by precious counsel, never to be forgotten. We cannot render it in kind, but perhaps in the fulness of time it may become our noblest duty to aid another as we have ourselves been aided, and to transmit to him an invaluable treasure, the tradition of the intellectual life.

In learning to know other things, and other minds, we become more intimately acquainted with ourselves, and are to ourselves better worth knowing.

We need society, and we need solitude also, as we need summer and winter, day and night, exercise and rest.

Never be afraid of What is good; the good is always the road to what is true.