“Montaigne speaks of an “Abecedarian” ignorance that precedes knowledge, and a doctoral ignorance that comes after it. The first is the ignorance of those who, not knowing their A-B-C’s, cannot read at all. The second is the ignorance of those who have misread many books. They are, as Alexander Pope rightly calls them, “bookful blockheads, ignorantly read.” There have always been literate ignoramuses, who have read too widely, and not well. The Greeks had a name for such a mixture of learning and folly which might be applied to the bookish but poorly read of all ages. They are all “sophomores.””

“The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.”

“Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't.”

“The best books are those, which those who read them believe they themselves could have written.”

“Personally, I am a hedonistic reader; I have never read a book merely because it was ancient. I read books for the aesthetic emotions they offer me, and I ignore the commentaries and criticism.”

“Beware
Those Who
Are ALWAYS
READING
BOOKS”

“Those who read and rightly understand my teaching will not start an insurrection; they have not learned that from me.”

“Even those who write against fame wish for the fame of having written well, and those who read their works desire the fame of having read them.”

“It is the semi-learned who scorn the ignorant; the learned know too much about them for that.”

“I speak from ignorance.
Who once learned much, but speaks from ignorance now.”