The student can read as fast as his mind will let him, not as slow as his eyes make him.

True freedom is impossible without a mind made free by discipline.

The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth.

... always keep in mind that an article of faith is not something that the faithful assume. Faith, for those who have it, is the most certain form of knowledge, not a tentative opinion.

Don't try to resist the effect that a work of imaginative literature has on you.

The reader who fails to ponder, or at least mark, the words he does not understand is headed for disaster.

From your point of view as a reader, therefore, the most important words are those that give you trouble.

Most of us are addicted to non-active reading. The outstanding fault of the non-active or undemanding reader is his inattention to words, and his consequent failure to come to terms with the author.

The mind can atrophy, like the muscles, if it is not used.

In short, we can only learn from our "betters".

What reaches the heart without going through the mind is likely to bounce back and put the mind out of business.

That’s the place to get to—nowhere. One wants to wander away from the world’s somewheres, into our own nowhere.

She said all a body would have to do there [Heaven] was to go around all day long with a harp and sing, forever and ever.

I'm going to spend it all. . . why leave it to our errors?

It is impossible to imagine a more complete fusion with nature than that of the Gypsy.

Let us conduct ourselves so that all men wish to be our friends and all fear to be our enemies.

Wake up determined. Go to bed satisfied.

Elizabeth I was my favourite monarch though, what an inspiration, she did great things for women.

Religion itself is without genius. There is no religious genius and no one would be permitted to distinguish between the talented and the untalented in religion.

I had no idea of the historical evolution of the civilized world's music and had not realized that all modern music owes everything to Bach.

Ignorant people in preppy clothes are more dangerous to America than oil embargoes.