“Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book. ”

“The five marks of the Roman decaying culture:Concern with displaying affluence instead of building wealth;Obsession with sex and perversions of sex;Art becomes freakish and sensationalistic instead of creative and original;Widening disparity between very rich and very poor; Increased demand to live off the state.”

“Active valour may often be the present of nature; but such patient diligence can be the fruit only of habit and discipline.”

“To a lover of books the shops and sales in London present irresistible temptations.”

“Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.”

“The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.”

“The end comes when we no longer talk with ourselves. It is the end of genuine thinking and the beginning of the final loneliness”