Digressions incontestably are the sunshine; they are the life, the soul of reading.
Laurence SterneRead
The most accomplished way of using books is to serve them as some people do lords; learn their titles and then brag of their acquaintance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques shallow knowledge and emphasizes the importance of genuine understanding over façade.
Laurence Sterne's quote highlights the tendency of some individuals to superficially engage with literature for the sake of reputation, rather than seeking true understanding or wisdom. It suggests that simply being familiar with the titles of books does not equate to meaningful learning; instead, it criticizes those who boast about their literary connections without having derived deeper insights from them.
Themes
BooksEducationKnowledgeUnderstandingWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of reading, one could use this quote to illustrate the idea that true engagement with literature requires more than just surface-level recognition.
More from Laurence Sterne
All quotes →To write a book is for all the world like humming a song—be but in tune with yourself, madam, 'tis no matter how high or how low you take it.
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Solitude is the best nurse of wisdom.
Laurence SterneRead
The accusing spirit, which flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath, blushed as he gave it in; and the recording angel as he wrote it down dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out forever.
Laurence SterneRead
I'll not hurt thee, says Uncle Toby, rising with the fly in his hand. Go, he says, opening the window to let it escape. Why should I hurt thee? This world is surely wide enough to hold both thee and me.
Laurence SterneRead
I once asked a hermit in Italy how he could venture to live alone, in a single cottage, on the top of a mountain, a mile from any habitation? He replied, that Providence was his next-door neighbor.
Laurence SterneRead
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Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.
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While the business of education in Europe consists in lectures upon the ruins of Palmyra and the antiquities of Herculaneum , or in disputes about Hebrew points, Greek particles, or the accent and quantity of the Roman language, the youth of America will be employed in acquiring those branches of knowledge which increase the conveniences of life.
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And once we have given our community a good start,' I pointed out, ' the process will be cumulative. By maintaining a sound system of education you produce citizens of good character, and citizens of sound character, with the advantage of a good education, produce in turn children better than themselves and better able to produce still better children in their turn, as can be seen with animals.
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The art of reading is to skip judiciously.
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A lively and lasting sense of filial duty is more effectually impressed on the mind of a son or daughter by reading King Lear, than by all the dry volumes of ethics, and divinity that ever were written.
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By asking a novel question that you don't know the answer to, you discover whether you can formulate a way of finding the answer, and you stretch your own mind, and very often you learn something new.
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