“Long books, when read, are usually overpraised, because the reader wishes to convince others and himself that he has not wasted his time.”

“Every reader, if he has a strong mind, reads himself into the book, and amalgamates his thoughts with those of the author.”

“And if the reader has no taste for what he reads, all the time is wasted”

“My ideal state as a reader when I’m reading other people is feeling I’m vaguely wasting my time when I’m not reading that novel.”

“Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments. Books are for the scholar's idle times. When he can read God directly, the hour is too precious to be wasted in other men's transcripts of their readings.”

“Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book's truth.”