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This consists in not taking a book into one’s hand merely because it is interesting the great public at the time — such as political or religious pamp...more

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Any book which is at all important should be re-read immediately.

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... that when you're buying books, you're optimistically thinking you're buying the time to read them.(Paraphrase of Schopenhauer)

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It is in trifles and when he is off his guard that a man best shows his character.

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Every possession and every happiness is but lent by chance for an uncertain time, and may therefore be demanded back the next hour.

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Time is that by which at every moment all things become as nothing in our hands, and thereby lose all their true value.

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It is for this reason that we find that co-existence, which could neither be intime alone, for time has no contiguity, nor in space alone, forspace ha...more

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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 nourish...more

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The art of not reading is a very important one. [. . .] [Y]ou should remember that he who writes for fools always find a large public. – A preconditio...more

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Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation o...more

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Reading is merely a surrogate for thinking for yourself; it means letting someone else direct your thoughts. Many books, moreover, serve merely to sho...more

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When we read, another person thinks for us: we merely repeat his mental process. In learning to write, the pupil goes over with his pen what the teach...more

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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 goo...more

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Common people are merely intent on spending time - whoever has some talent, on making use of it.

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[A]t bottom it is the same with traveling as with reading. How often do we complain that we cannot remember one thousandth part of what we read! In bo...more