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If a secret
history of books could be written, and the author's private
thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how
many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull
tales excite the reader!
-- William M. Thackeray
1811-1863, Indian-born
British Novelist
To read well,
that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble
exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any
other exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It
requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the
steady intention almost of the whole life to this object.
-- Henry David Thoreau
1817-1862, American Essayist,
Poet, Naturalist
Read the best
books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at
all.
-- Henry David Thoreau
1817-1862, American Essayist,
Poet, Naturalist
How many a man
has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book!
The book exists for us, perchance, that will explain our
miracles and reveal new ones. The at present unutterable
things we may find somewhere uttered.
-- Henry David Thoreau
1817-1862, American Essayist,
Poet, Naturalist
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Books must be
read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.
-- Henry David Thoreau
1817-1862, American Essayist,
Poet, Naturalist
Books, not
which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each
thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man cannot
read, and a timid one would not be entertained by, which
even make us dangerous to existing institution --such call I
good books.
-- Henry David Thoreau
1817-1862, American Essayist,
Poet, Naturalist
I always begin
at the left with the opening word of the sentence and read
toward the right and I recommend this method.
-- James Thurber
1894-1961, American Humorist,
Illustrator
The Brahmins
say that in their books there are many predictions of times
in which it will rain. But press those books as strongly as
you can, you can not get out of them a drop of water. So you
can not get out of all the books that contain the best
precepts the smallest good deed.
-- Count Leo Tolstoy
1828-1910, Russian Novelist,
Philosopher
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