“It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them.”

“People have now a-days, (said he,) got a strange opinion that every thing should be taught by lectures. Now, I cannot see that lectures can do so much good as reading the books from which the lectures are taken. I know nothing that can be best taught by lectures, except where experiments are to be shewn. You may teach chymistry by lectures.—You might teach making of shoes by lectures!”

“Sir, there is nothing too little for so little creature as man. It is by studying little things that we attain the great knowledge of having as little misery and as much happiness as possible.”

“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”

“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”

“Never trust a man who writes more than he reads.”

“The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book.”