Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.

Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order read more

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order to become its echo I have, in a way, to silence it. I bring to this incessant speech the decisiveness, the authority of my own silence.

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all.

There are words which sever hearts more than sharp swords; there are words the point of which sting the heart read more

There are words which sever hearts more than sharp swords; there are words the point of which sting the heart through the course of a whole life.

A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the read more

A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the intrusion.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them all.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them all.

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.

Some on commission, some for the love of learning, some because they have nothing better to do or because they read more

Some on commission, some for the love of learning, some because they have nothing better to do or because they hope these walls of books will deaden the drumming of the demon in their ears.

In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather read more

In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.