奧裏森·馬登/Orison Marden
"In education," says Herbert Spencer,"the process of self-develo pment should be encouraged to the fullest extent.Children should be led to make their own investigations,and to draw their own inferences.They should be told as little as possible,and induced to discover as much as possible.Humanity has progressed solely by self-instruction;and that t o achieve the best results each mind must progress somewhat after the sa me fashion,is continually proved by the marked success of self-made men."
"My books,"said Thomas Hood,"kept me from the ring,the dog-pit,the tavern,and the saloon.The associate of Pope and Addison,the mind accustomed to the noble through silent discourse of Shakespeare and Milt on,will hardly seek or put up with low or evil company or slaves."
"When I get a little money," said Erasmus,"I buy books,and if a ny is left,I buy food and clothes."
"No entertainment is so cheap as reading," says Mary Worley Montag ue,"nor any pleasure so lasting." Good books elevate the character,p urify the taste,take the attractiveness out of low pleasures,and lift us upon a higher plane of thinking and living.It is not easy to be mean directly after reading a noble and inspiring book.
The conversation of a man who reads for improvement or pleasure will be flavored by his reading;but it will not be about his reading.
Perhaps no other thing has such power to lift the poor out of his po verty,the wretched out of his misery,to make the burden-bearer forget his burden,the sick his sufferings,the sorrower his grief,the downtro dden his degradation,as books.They are friends to the lonely,companio ns to the deserted,joy to the joyless,hope to the hopeless,good cheer to the disheartened,a helper to the helpless.They bring light into da rkness,and sunshine into shadow.
"Twenty-five years ago,when I was a boy," said Rev.J.A.James,"a school-fellow gave me an infamous book,which he lent me for only f ifteen minutes.At the end of that time it was returned to him,but tha t book has haunted me like a specter ever since.I have asked God on my knees to obliterate that book from my mind,but I believe that I shall c arry down with me to the grave the spiritual damage I received during th ose fifteen minutes."