“Ignorance is degrading only when it is found
in company with riches. Want and penury restrain the poor man; his employment
takes the place of knowledge and occupies his thoughts: while rich men who are
ignorant live for their pleasure only, and resemble a beast; as may be seen
daily. They are to be reproached also for not having used wealth and leisure
for that which lends them their greatest value.
When we read, another person thinks for us: we
merely repeat his mental process. It is the same as the pupil, in learning to
write, following with his pen the lines that have been pencilled by the
teacher. Accordingly, in reading, the work of thinking is, for the greater
part, done for us. This is why we are consciously relieved when we turn to
reading after being occupied with our own thoughts. But, in reading, our head
is, however, really only the arena of some one else’s thoughts. And so it
happens that the person who reads a great deal — that is to say, almost the
whole day, and recreates himself by spending the intervals in thoughtless
diversion, gradually loses the ability to think for himself; just as a man who
is always riding at last forgets how to walk. Such, however, is the case with
many men of learning: they have read themselves stupid. … And just as one
spoils the stomach by overfeeding and thereby impairs the whole body, so can
one overload and choke the mind by giving it too much nourishment. For the more
one reads the fewer are the traces left of what one has read; the mind is like
a tablet that has been written over and over. Hence it is impossible to
reflect; and it is only by reflection that one can assimilate what one has read
if one reads straight ahead without pondering over it later, what has been read
does not take root, but is for the most part lost.”
…
“One can never read too little of bad, or too
much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind.
In order to read what is good one must make it
a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and
strength limited.”
…
“It is because people will only read what is
the newest instead of what is the best of all ages, that writers remain in the
narrow circle of prevailing ideas, and that the age sinks deeper and deeper in
its own mire.”
…
“It would be a good thing to buy books if one
could also buy the time to read them; but one usually confuses the purchase of
books with the acquisition of their contents. To desire that a man should
retain everything he has ever read, is the same as wishing him to retain in his
stomach all that he has ever eaten. He has been bodily nourished on what he has
eaten, and mentally on what he has read, and through them become what he is. As
the body assimilates what is homogeneous to it, so will a man retain what
interests him; in other words, what coincides with his system of thought or
suits his ends. Every one has aims, but very few have anything approaching a
system of thought. This is why such people do not take an objective interest in
anything, and why they learn nothing from what they read: they remember nothing
about it.”
…
“Any kind of important book should immediately
be read twice, partly because one grasps the matter in its entirety the second
time, and only really understands the beginning when the end is known; and
partly because in reading it the second time one’s temper and mood are
different, so that one gets another impression; it may be that one sees the
matter in another light.”