“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”
July 14, 1763, p. 121
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I
Source: The Life of Samuel Johnson, Vol 2
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Samuel Johnson362
English writer 1709–1784Related quotes
“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman. Believing what he read made him mad.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
Virginia Woolf book Jacob's Room
Variant: But then anyone who's worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm.
Source: Jacob's Room
“A man who can’t read only knows what other folks tell him.”
Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist
Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Seventh Son (1987), Chapter 15.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994) public figure, First Lady to 35th U.S. President John F. Kennedy
The "Camelot" interview (29 November 1963)
“The world is a beautiful book, but of little use to him who cannot read it.”
Carlo Goldoni (1707–1794) Italian playwright and librettist
Il mondo è un bel libro, ma poco serve a chi non lo sa leggere.
I. 14.
Pamela (c. 1750)
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
As quoted in Statesman and Friend: Correspondence of John Adams with Benjamin Waterhouse, 1784–1822 http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015026646540;view=1up;seq=69 (1927), edited by Worthington C. Ford, Boston, Massachusetts: Little, Brown, and Company. p. 57 <br class="br">Attributed
“Every man is a volume if you know how to read him.”
William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) United States Unitarian clergyman