Samuel Johnson on Reading
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“What is twice read is commonly better remembered than what is transcribed.”
“A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.”
“Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas: he that reads books of science, though without any desire fixed of improvement, will grow more knowing; he that entertains himself with moral or religious treatises, will imperceptibly advance in goodness; the ideas which are often offered to the mind, will at last find a lucky moment when it is disposed to receive them.”