I must claim the quoter's privilege of giving only as much of the text as will suit my purpose, said read more

I must claim the quoter's privilege of giving only as much of the text as will suit my purpose, said Tan-Chun. If I told you how it went on, I should end up by contradicting myself!

I was allowed to ring the bell for five minutes until everyone was in assembly. It was the beginning of read more

I was allowed to ring the bell for five minutes until everyone was in assembly. It was the beginning of power.

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.

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.

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.

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

Books are men of higher stature; the only men that speak aloud for future times to hear.

Books are men of higher stature; the only men that speak aloud for future times to hear.

There's one good kind of writer -- a dead one.

There's one good kind of writer -- a dead one.