If we read the Western Canon in order to form our social, political, or personal moral values, I firmly believe we will become monsters of selfishness and exploitation.

Everyone wants a prodigy to fail; it makes our mediocrity more bearable.

The most beautiful prose paragraph yet written by any American.

We read, frequently if not unknowingly, in search of a mind more original than our own.

I realized early on that the academy and the literary world alike

It is hard to go on living without some hope of encountering the extraordinary.

Shakespeare is the true multicultural author. He exists in all languages. He is put on the stage everywhere. Everyone feels that they are represented by him on the stage.

At our present bad moment, we need above all to recover our sense of literary individuality and of poetic autonomy.

Read deeply, not to believe, not to accept, not to contradict, but to learn to share in that one nature that writes and reads.

Reading well is one of the greatest pleasures that solitude can afford you.

The art and passion of reading well and deeply is waning, but [Jane] Austen still inspires people to become fanatical readers.

You need to break a problem into pieces and do what is scheduled for each time slot

We cannot measure a person’s value to the human race by tabulating the size of his estate. We must judge each person by his or her final contribution to humanity and nature.

The Laws Of The Kingdom Of God Are Programmed Within Every Person

First rule in government spending: why build one when you can have two at twice the price?

We can know a person by observing his behaviour, understanding the reasons for his actions and ascertaining his intentions. If we do this, how can we not know him?

I don't believe in anything, yet I believe emphatically in almost everything. It all depends on what seems appropriate at the time.

If we're so awful and we're so bad, you ought to check out the nightlife in Leningrad.

I just like having fun. And, you know, sometimes I just like to present myself in that fun energy.

If untouchability is an integral part of Hinduism, the latter is a spent bullet.

Experiences are the chemicals of life with which the philosopher experiments