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Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends.
Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends.
There's one good kind of writer -- a dead one.
There's one good kind of writer -- a dead one.
Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.
Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.
Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he read more
Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he can give it himself, or because they are beautiful or witty, or because he expects them to touch a cord of association in his reader, or because he wishes to show that he is learned and well read. Quotations due to the last motive are invariably ill-advised; the discerning reader detects it and is contemptuous; the undiscerning is perhaps impressed, but even then is at the same time repelled, pretentious quotations being the surest road to tedium.
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.
Keep your words sweet -- you may have to eat them. I expect to pass through this world but once; read more
Keep your words sweet -- you may have to eat them. I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.
One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.
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.