"[Milton] calls the university "A stony-hearted step-mother.""
"Poetry should be vital--either stirring our blood by its divine movements or snatching our breath by its divine perfection. To do both is supreme glory, to do either is enduring fame."
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Source: Augustine Birrell (1885). “Obiter Dicta ...: Carlye. On the alleged obscurity of Mr. Browning's poetry. Truth-hunting. Actors. A rogue's memoirs. The via media. Falstaff [by George Radford”
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"Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one."
"Libraries are not made, they grow."
"There were no books in Eden, and there will be none in heaven"
"It is the Mass that matters."
"A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators."