“One reads for pleasure… it is not a public duty.”
Source: The Uncommon Reader
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Alan Bennett56
English actor, author 1934Related quotes
“Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.”
Harold Bloom (1930–2019) American literary critic and scholar
Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …
"Academe and I" (May 1972), in The Tragedy of the Moon (1973), p. 224
General sources
“The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author
Letter to Ottoline Morrell (January 1922)
“The search for the truth is the noblest of occupations, and its publication a duty.”
Anne Louise Germaine de Staël (1766–1817) Swiss author
La recherche de la vérité est la plus noble des occupations, et sa publication un devoir.
Pt. 4, ch. 2
De l’Allemagne [Germany] (1813)
“Disregard public opinion when it interferes with your duty.”
Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general
Misattributed, Jackson's personal book of maxims
“Real luxury is time and opportunity to read for pleasure.”
Jane E. Brody (1941) American writer
“Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.”
Clive Staples Lewis book Surprised by Joy
Surprised by Joy (1955)
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
A Few Maxims for the Instruction of the Over-Educated (1894)
Glenn Greenwald (1967) American journalist, lawyer and writer
No Place to Hide (2014)
Source: No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State
Context: Democracy requires accountability and consent of the governed, which is only possible if citizens know what is being done in their name. [... ] Conversely, the presumption is that the government, with rare exceptions, will not know anything that law-abiding citizens are doing. [... ] Transparency is for those who carry out public duties and exercise public power. Privacy is for everyone else.
Penguin Books 2015 edition, page 209.