“The best books are those, which those who read them believe they themselves could have written.”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher
The Art of Persuasion
“Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.”
Source: Lacon (1820) Vol. II; CCXLVIII
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon tho…" by Charles Caleb Colton?
Charles Caleb Colton38
British priest and writer 1777–1832Related quotes
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
"Thinking for Oneself" http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/essays/chapter8.html <br class="br">Essays
Lloyd Alexander (1924–2007) American children's writer
Source: Time Cat
Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536) Dutch Renaissance humanist, Catholic priest, and theologian
Letter to an unidentified friend (1489), as translated in Collected Works of Erasmus (1974), p. 58
Jacques Derrida book Specters of Marx
Derrida (2003 documentary), referring to his personal library
Specters of Marx (1993), 2000s
“The only reason I read a book is because I cannot see and converse with the man who wrote it.”
Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)
Speech in Kansas City (12 May 1905), PWW (The Papers of Woodrow Wilson) 16:99
Unsourced variant: I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.
1900s
“Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Variant: The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.