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Reading: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
There was an awful rainbow once in heaven; We know her woof, her texture; she is given In the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings.— KEATS — Lamia. Pt. II. L. 231.
A rainbow in the morning Is the Shepherd's warning; But a rainbow at night Is the Shepherd's delight. Old Weather Rhyme. What skilful limner e'er would choose To paint the rainbow's varying hues, Unless to mortal it were given To dip his brush in dyes of heaven? ScoTT-Marmion. Canto VI. St. 5. Mild arch of promise! on the evening sky Thou shinest fair with many a lovely ray, Each in the other melting.— SOUTHEY — Sonnets. The Evening
Rainbow. Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow in the sky!— TENNYSON — Idylls of the King. The Coming of Arthur. L. 401.
West, The rainbow bursts like magic on mine eyes! In hues of ancient promise there imprest; Frail in its date, eternal in its guise.— CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER — Sonnets
and Fugitive Pieces. The Rainbow. Bright pledge of peace and sunshine! the sure tie Of thy Lord's hand, the object of His eye! When I behold thee, though my light be dim, Distinct, and low, I can in thine see Him Who looks upon thee from His glorious throne, And minds the covenant between all and One.— S. VAUGHAN — The Rainbow.
Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.— ADDISON — The Tatler. No. 147.
Reading maketh a full man.— BACON — Of Studies.
We have not read an author till we have seen his object, whatever it may be, as he saw it.— CARLYLE — Essays. Goethe's Helena.
The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style, Give truth a lustre, and make wisdom smile.— COWPER — Retirement. L. 715.
Half the gossip of society would perish if the books that are truly worth reading were but read.— DAWSON — Address on Opening the
Birmingham Free Library. Oct. 26, 1866. The delight of opening a new pursuit, or a new course of reading, imparts the vivacity and novelty of youth even to old age.— ISAAC DISRAELI — Literary Character of Men of Genius. Ch. XXII.
If we encountered a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he read.— EMERSON — Letters and Social Aims.
Quotation and Originality. I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven. I should as soon think of swimming across the Charles river when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books in originals, when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue.— EMERSON — Essays. Books.
Our high respect for a well-read man is praise enough of literature.— EMERSON — Letters and Social Aims.
Quotation and Originality. My early and invincible love of reading, *** I would not exchange for the treasures of India.— GIBBON — Memoirs.
In a polite age almost every person becomes a reader, and receives more instruction from the Press than the Pulpit.— GOLDSMITH — The Citizen of the World.
Letter LXXV. The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read over a book I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.— GOLDSMITH — The Citizen of the World.
Letter LXXXIII. A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.— SAM'L JOHNSON — Boswell's Life of
Johnson. 1763. What is twice read is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed.— SAM'L JOHNSON — The Idler. No. 74.
Many readers judge of the power of a book by the shock it gives their feelings.— LONGFELLOW — Kavanagh. Ch. XIII.
In science, read, by preference, the newest works; in literature, the oldest. The classic literature is always modern.— BULWER-LYTTON — Caxtoniana. Hints
on Mental Culture. His classical reading is great: he can quote Horace, Juvenal, Ovid, and Martial by rote. *** He has read Metaphysics Spinoza and Kant; And Theology too: I have heard him descant Upon Basil and Jerome. Antiquities, art, He is fond of. He knows the old masters by heart, And his taste is refined. OWEN MEREDITH (Lord Lytton)- Lucile. Canto II. Pt. IV. Who reads Incessantly, and to his reading brings not A spirit and judgment equal or superior, (And what he brings what need he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unsettled still remains, Deep versed in books and shallow in himself, Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge, As children gathering pebbles on the shore.— MILTON — Paradise Regained. Bk. IV. L. 322.
He that I am reading seems always to have the most force.— MONTAIGNE — Apology for Raimond
Sebond. And better had they ne'er been born, Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.— SCOTT — The Monastery. Ch. XII.
He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts.— Shakespeare — Love's Labour's Lost. Act IV. Sc. 2. L. 26.
Read Homer once, and you can read no more, For all books else appear so mean, so poor, Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read, And Homer will be all the books you need. JOHN SHEFFIELD (Duke of Buckinghamshire)-An Essay on Poetry. L. 323. He that runs may read.— S. TENNYSON — The Flower. St. 5.
Studious let me sit, And hold high converse with the mighty Dead.— THOMSON — Seasons. Winter. L. 431.
Learn to read slow; all other graces Will follow in their proper places. и.— WM. WALKER — Art of Reading.
Zwar sind sie an das Beste nicht gewöhnt, Allein sie haben schrecklich viel gelesen. What they're accustomed to is no great matter, But then, alas! they've read an awful deal.— GOETHE — Faust. Vorspiel auf dem Theater. L. 13.