Holbrook Jackson Quotations

No man is ever old enough to know better.

The time to read is any time: no apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is necessary.

The end of reading is not more books but more life.

Beware of your habits. The better they are the more surely they will be your undoing.

Those who seek happiness miss it, and those who discuss it, lack it.

The poor are the only consistent altruists; they sell all they have and give it to the rich.

The newest books are those that never grow old.

No one is ever old enough to know better

The possession of a great many things, even the best of things, tends to blind one to the real value of anything.

A good book is always on tap; it may be decanted and drunk a hundred times, and it is still there for further imbibement.

Why did Nature create man? Was it to show that she is big enough to make mistakes, or was it pure ignorance?

Sacrifice is a form of bargaining.

Book-love, I say again, lasts throughout life, it never flags or fails, but, like Beauty itself, is a joy forever.

Past and present, it is all the same, books are necromancers, they exercise an influence more varied, more lasting, than any magic known to man.

Education begins by teaching children to read and ends by making most of them hate reading.

Love is the most subtle form of self-interest.

History proves there is no better advertisement for a book than to condemn it for obscenity.

Man is a dog's idea of what God should be.

Intuition is reason in a hurry.

As soon as an idea is accepted it is time to reject it.

Genius is intuition on fire.

Great books conserve time.

Suffer fools gladly; they may be right.

Pedantry is the dotage of knowledge.

The great revolution of the future will be Nature's revolt against man.

The better the book the more room for the reader.

A large, still book is a piece of quietness, succulent and nourishing in a noisy world, which I approach and imbibe with "a sort of greedy enjoyment," as Marcel Proust said of those rooms of his old home whose air was "saturated with the bouquet of silence."

When in doubt, risk it

Your readiest desire is your path to joy... even if it destroys you.

We are more inclined to regret our virtues than our vices; but only the very honest will admit this.

Your library is your portrait.

Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today.

Be contented, when you have got all you want.

Fear of corrupting the mind of the younger generation is the loftiest form of cowardice.

Originality is only variation.

Only one-fourth of the sorrow in each man's life is caused by outside uncontrollable elements, the rest is self-imposed by failing to analyze and act with calmness.

There are only two classes in society: those who get more than they earn, and those who earn more than they get.

People who want to be amused have lost the art of living.

Forgive everybody but yourself.

Books are never out of humour; never envious or jealous, they answer all questions with readiness; ... they teach us how to live and how to die; they dispel melancholy by their mirth, and amuse by their wit; they prepare the soul to suffer everything and desire nothing; they introduce us to ourselves.

Don't try to convert the elderly person; circumvent him.

Genius is initiative on fire.

Books worth reading are worth re-reading.

Happiness is a form of courage.