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.

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.

That is the point of quotations. One can use another's words to be insulting.

That is the point of quotations. One can use another's words to be insulting.

Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.

Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.

He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He read more

He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men.

When I am dead, I hope it may be said: "His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.".

When I am dead, I hope it may be said: "His sins were scarlet, but his books were read.".

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.

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.

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.