This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
The three practical rules, then, which I have to offer are - (1) Never read any book that is not a year old. (2) Never read any but the famed books (3) Never read any but what you like.
Books |
If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.
Nature and books belong to the eyes that see them. It depends on the mood of the man, whether he shall see the sunset or the fine poem. There are always sunsets, and there is always genius; but only a few hours so serene that we can relish nature or criticism. The more or less depends on structure or temperament. Temperament is the iron wire on which the beads are strung. Of what use is fortune or talent to a cold and defective nature?
Books | Criticism | Fortune | Genius | Man | Nature | Talent |
The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in why they revel to us none but the best of their thoughts.
Reading good books is like having a conversation with the highly worthy persons of the past who wrote them; indeed, it is like having a prepared conversation in which those persons disclose to us only their best thinking.
Learning hath gained most by those books by which printers have lost.
Thou mayest as well expect to grow stronger by always eating as wiser by always reading. To much overcharges nature, and turns more into disease than nourishment. It is thought, and digestion which makes books serviceable, and give health and vigor to the mind.
Books | Disease | Health | Mind | Nature | Reading | Thought |
He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in human nature. Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned in books are ignorant of the world. He who is ignorant of books is often well acquainted with other things; for life is of the same length in the learned and unlearned; the mind cannot be idle; if it is not taken up with one thing, it attends to another through choice or necessity; and the degree of previous capacity in one class or another is a mere lottery.
Art | Books | Capacity | Choice | Greatness | Human nature | Life | Life | Little | Mind | Nature | Necessity | Philosophy | Politics | Strength | Weakness | World |
Sweet are the uses of adversity; which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head; and this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every things.
Edward N. Kirk, fully Edward Needles Kirk
Other books we may read and criticise. To the Scriptures we must bow the entire soul, with all its faculties.
Books |
Today, with the abundance of books available, it is the mark of a truly educated man to know what not to read. … Feed only on the best
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.