Quote

If a man writes a book, let him set down only what he knows. I have guesses enough of my own.

Men do not understand books until they have a certain amount of life, or at any rate no man understands a deep book, until he has seen and lived at least part of its contents.

Learning is acquired by reading books, but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying all the various facets of them.

A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people.

You think you choose the subjects of your books. But sometimes, in ways you don't know, the books choose you.

Who learns most from a good book is the author.

The writer studies literature, not the world. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write.

A man, to read, must read alone. He may make extracts, he may work at books in company; but to read, to absorb, he must be solitary.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

He that composes himself is wiser than he that composes a book.