“Reading … is an activity subsequent to writing: more resigned, more civil, more intellectual.”

Universal History of Infamy [Historia universal de la infamia] (1935) Preface

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Reading … is an activity subsequent to writing: more resigned, more civil, more intellectual." by Jorge Luis Borges?
Jorge Luis Borges photo
Jorge Luis Borges 213
Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator… 1899–1986

Related quotes

Carl von Clausewitz photo
Roberto Bolaño photo

“Reading is more important than writing.”

Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003) Chilean author

Source: The Last Interview and Other Conversations

Settlemania photo

“The more you read and write, the better you think and live.”

Settlemania (1999) Settlemania Is in Indian Video Content Creator and Social Media Expert
Lois Duncan photo

“Print, in even more revolutionary ways than writing, changed the very form of civilization.”

Neil Postman (1931–2003) American writer and academic

Teaching as a Subversive Activity (1969)
Context: Print, in even more revolutionary ways than writing, changed the very form of civilization.... the Protestant Revolution was contemporaneous with the invention of moving type.... the printing and distribution of millions of Bibles made possible a more personal religion, as the Word of God rested on each man's kitchen table. The book, by isolating the reader and his responses, tended to separate him from the powerful oral influences of his family, teacher, and priest. Print thus created a new conception of self as well as of self-interest. At the same time, the printing press provided the wide circulation necessary to create national literatures and intense pride in one's native language. Print thus promoted individualism on one hand and nationalism on the other.

Rudolph Rummel photo

“"The Polarity Principle:" The more government, the more violence. By ‘more government’ is meant more centralization of government power, more intervention in personal, social, and economic affairs and activities, more limits on political criticism and competition, and more narrowing of electoral choices. In other words, by ‘more government’ is meant less freedom, less civil liberties, political rights, and economic freedom.”

Rudolph Rummel (1932–2014) American academic

“Libertarianism, Violence within States, and the Polarity Principle,” Comparative Politics, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Jul., 1984), pp. 443-462. Published by Comparative Politics, Ph.D. Programs in Political Science, City University of New York.

Ted Hughes photo

“Many writers write a great deal, but very few write more than a very little of the real thing. So most writing must be displaced activity.”

Ted Hughes (1930–1998) English poet and children's writer

The Paris Review interview
Context: Many writers write a great deal, but very few write more than a very little of the real thing. So most writing must be displaced activity. When cockerels confront each other and daren’t fight, they busily start pecking imaginary grains off to the side. That’s displaced activity. Much of what we do at any level is a bit like that, I fancy. But hard to know which is which. On the other hand, the machinery has to be kept running. The big problem for those who write verse is keeping the machine running without simply exercising evasion of the real confrontation. If Ulanova, the ballerina, missed one day of practice, she couldn’t get back to peak fitness without a week of hard work. Dickens said the same about his writing—if he missed a day he needed a week of hard slog to get back into the flow.

Susan Sontag photo
James K. Morrow photo

“Fair are the daughters of men, and fairest are those who read. Is there any creature more desirable than a damsel in intellectual distress?”

James K. Morrow (1947) (1947-) science fiction author

Source: The Philosopher's Apprentice (2008), Chapter 8 (pp. 171-172)

Flannery O’Connor photo

Related topics