“There are people who read too much: the bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.”

—  H.L. Mencken

71
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 14, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "There are people who read too much: the bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are d…" by H.L. Mencken?
H.L. Mencken photo
H.L. Mencken281
American journalist and writer 1880–1956

Related quotes

Guy Debord photo

“I have written much less than most people who write; I have drunk much more than most people who drink.”

Guy Debord (1931–1994) French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker and founding member of the Situationist International (SI)

Cormac McCarthy photo

“His among the clouded faces seemed unperturbed. He looked over the Americans, their gear. In truth, they did not look like men who might have whiskey they hadn't drunk.”

Cormac McCarthy book Blood Meridian

Blood Meridian (1985)

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. photo

“There is in all men a demand for the superlative, so much so that the poor devil who has no other way of reaching it attains it by getting drunk.”

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841–1935) United States Supreme Court justice

1910s, "Natural Law", 32 Harvard Law Review 40, 41 (1918)

Mo Yan photo

““Am I drunk?" he asked Crewcut. "You're not drunk, Boss," Crewcut replied. "How could a superior individual like you be drunk? People around here who get drunk are the dregs of society, illiterates, uncouth people. Highbrow folks, those of the 'spring snow,' cannot get drunk. You're a highbrow, therefore you cannot be drunk.””

Mo Yan book The Republic of Wine

Source: The Republic of Wine (1992), Chapter I, Section 1

Walter Bagehot photo

“The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people who can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.”

Walter Bagehot (1826–1877) British journalist, businessman, and essayist

[Morgan, Forrest, Shakespeare—the Man, published in the Prospective Review, July 1853, The works of Walter Bagehot, vol. 1, 1891, Hartford, Connecticut, Travelers Insurance Company, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101064786716;view=1up;seq=373, 265–266 of 255–302]
Shakespeare—the Man (1853)

Albert Einstein photo

“Much reading after a certain age diverts the mind from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking,”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1930s, Wisehart interview (1930)
Context: Much reading after a certain age diverts the mind from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking, just as the man who spends too much time in the theaters is apt to be content with living vicariously instead of living his own life.

Charles Darwin photo

“An American monkey, after getting drunk on brandy, would never touch it again, and thus is much wiser than most men.”

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"

“Most people talk when they have nothing to say. I’m not talking because I have too much to say. None of which I’d want you to hear.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Charmed Thirds

Related topics