Georg Brandes, "On Reading" leowong.micro.blog

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He who restricts himself to one reading of a good book can know little about it. Ibid.

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Michael Angelo, Titian, Velasquez, and Rembrandt have taught me more concerning humanity than whole libraries of books. Ibid.

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We dare not demand of an author that he should work to make us better: that would be laying too heavy a burden upon him. All that we can demand from him is that he work conscientiously, and that he have it in him to teach us something. Ibid.

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It is perhaps best to begin with the books which have been written for those now living. Young people will quite understand these, and they will prepare the way for the great writers of the past. Ibid.

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Better by far read ten books about one thing or about one man than a hundred books about a hundred different things! Ibid.

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We reach through the book to the soul that created it. Ibid.

@LeoWong An Enemy of the People

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We are not to believe that we become better by mere reading, nor are we to demand that an author should improve us by moralizing. We ought, nevertheless, to read in such a manner that we appropriate from what we have read the moral lesson that lies hidden behind it. Ibid.

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The Capitulation at Soissons, 1814

There was a saying in France at that time that a man should always fire his last shot, because it might be the one to kill the enemy. Moreau did not fire it. Had he done so, according to all human calculation, the enemies of France would have been beaten, and the Europe of to-day might have been different. Ibid.

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There are reasons galore for not doing the only thing that ought to be done. Ibid.

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None of us can ever know whether the spot whereon we stand may not be a turning point, whence interminable threads start in all directions. We do not know. The only thing that we do know is that now is the time to be a man, and not a weakling, a Governor, not a capitulant. Ibid.

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Why should we read, then ? To increase our knowledge, divest ourselves of prejudices, and in an ever greater degree become personalities. What should we read? The books that attract us and hold us fast, because they are exactly suited to us. These books are the good books for us.

Someone asked a friend of mine : "What kind of books do you prefer? — romantic, naturalistic, allegorical?" "Good books," he answered, and it was an excellent reply; for there is nothing more stupid than to stick to rubrics. That book is good for me, which develops me.

How ought we to read these books? First, with affection; next, with criticism, further, if possible, so that our reading has a central point, from which we may guess or descry a connection, and, lastly, with the aim of fully understanding and making our own the moral lesson to be found in every event narrated.

A whole world can thus open itself out for us in a single hook. Through it we can become acquainted with some parts of human nature, wherein we recognize not only ourselves, changeable and rich in alterations and transformations, but we find the unchangeable being and eternal laws of Nature. Lastly, if we read attentively, we are able to grow morally, in so far as we vividly feel what ought to be done and what ought to be left undone.

Ibid.