READING

Related Subjects: Books, Education, Library, Literature, Writing

1. Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished and confirmed.—ADDISON
   

2. If Russians knew how to read, they would write me off.—CATHERINE THE GREAT
   

3. If I have not read a book before, it is, to all intents and purposes, new to me, whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago.—HAZLITT, On Reading New Books
   

4. When I take up a work that I have read before (the oftener the better) I know what I have to expect. The satisfaction is not lessened by being anticipated.—HAZLITT, On Reading Old Books
   

5. A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good. A young man should read five hours in a day, and so may acquire a great deal of knowledge.—SAMUEL JOHNSON, Boswell: Life
   

6. I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken.—SAMUEL JOHNSON, Boswell: Life
   

7. He that I am reading seems always to have the most force.—MONTAIGNE, Essay
   

8. Some phrase that with the public took
   Was all he read of any book.—HANNAH MORE, Florio and His Friend
   

9. I divide all readers into two classes: Those who read to remember and those who read to forget.—W. L. PHELPS
   

10. Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.—RUSKIN, Sesame and Lilies
    

11. Exceedingly well read.—SHAKESPEARE, Henry IV
    

12. He reads much;
    He is a great observer, and he looks
    Quite through the deeds of men.—SHAKESPEARE, Julius Caesar
    

13. Lord Summerhays: Reading is a dangerous amusement . . .
    
    Tarleton: Why, man it's the beginning of education.
    
    Lord Summerhays: On the contrary, it's the end of it. How can you dare teach a man to read until you've taught him everything else first?—BERNARD SHAW,
    Misalliance
    

14. Live always in the best company when you read.—SYDNEY SMITH, Lady Holland's Memoir
    

15. Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.—THOREAU, Walden