Samuel Taylor Coleridge Quotes About Reading

Quotes about: Reading

• Readers may be divided into four classes: 1) Sponges, who absorb all that they read and return it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtied. 2) Sand-glasses, who retain nothing and are content to get through a book for the sake of getting through the time. 3) Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs of what they read. 4) Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable, who profit by what they read, and enable others to profit by it also

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Book, Reading, Glasses

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1856). “Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton: A List of All the Ms. Emendations in Mr. Collier's Folio, 1632”, p.13

• Force yourself to reflect on what you read, paragraph by paragraph.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Reading, Literacy, Force

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1853). “The Literary Remains”, p.316

• To see him act is like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Reading, Light, Acting

  Table Talk 17 Apr. 1823 (1835)

• The age seems sore from excess of stimulation, just as a day or two after a thorough Debauch and long sustained Drinking-match a man feels all over like a Bruise. Even to admire otherwise than on the whole and where "I admire" is but a synonyme for "I remember, I liked it very much when I was reading it ," is too much an effort, would be too disquieting an emotion!

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Drinking, Reading, Men

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1858). “Letters, conversations, and recollections [ed. by T.Allsop].”, p.79

• The first class of readers may be compared to an hour-glass, their reading being as the sand; it runs in and runs out, and leaves not a vestige behind. A second class resembles a sponge, which imbibes everything, and returns it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtier. A third class is like a jelly-bag, which allows all that is pure to pass away, and retains only the refuse and dregs. The fourth class may be compared to the slave of Golconda, who, casting aside all that is worthless, preserves only the pure gems.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Running, Reading, Class

• It cannot but be injurious to the human mind never to be called into effort: the habit of receiving pleasure without any exertion of thought, by the mere excitement of curiosity, and sensibility, may be justly ranked among the worst effects of habitual novel-reading.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Reading, Effort, Curiosity

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1849). “The works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge”, p.369

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