“… one reads, above all, to prevent oneself thinking.”

“People living and dead, things past and present, all are contributories to that diminutive stream, oneself; a reflection which is essentially consoling, since it associates one with the sum of things and prevents one from living in barren isolation.”

“The aptitudes needed to conduct a real research project are fundamentally different from the ones needed for purposes of scientific vulgarisation (like education). This is because above and beyond a capacity for understanding problems and thinking and expressing oneself clearly – something that every good teacher has –an enormous amount of perseverance and stamina is necessary, and above all a scientific approach rooted in real inventiveness.”

“The great inconvenience of new books is that they prevent us from reading the old ones.”

“Books are for reading, not for turning oneself into livestock.”

“We have seen that language is something precious because it allows us to express ourselves; but it is fatal when one allows oneself to be completely led astray by it, because then it prevents one from expressing oneself. Language is the source of the prejudices and haste which Descartes thought of as the sources of error.”

“He made me think of all the books I hadn't read, and all the ones I'd read but hadn't fully understood.”

“To read is to withdraw. To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less… selfish.”

“I read somewhere; while God still existed one sustained a dialogue with God, and now that He no longer exists one has to sustain a dialogue with other people, I guess, or, better still, with oneself, that is to say, one talks or mumbles to oneself.”

“Reading is pleasure and happiness to be alive or sadness to be alive and above all it's knowledge and questions.”