Does there, I wonder, exist a being who has read all, or approximately all, that the person of average culture is supposed to have read, and that not to have read is a social sin? If such a being does exist, surely he is an old, a very old man.

Mother is far too clever to understand anything she does not like.

Nearly all bookish people are snobs, and especially the more enlightened among them. They are apt to assume that if a writer has immense circulation, if he is enjoyed by plain persons, and if he can fill several theatres at once, he cannont possibly be worth reading and merits only indifference and disdain.

You can only acquire really useful general ideas by first acquiring particular ideas . . . You cannot make bricks without straw.

Mother is far too clever to understand anything she does not like

We need a sense of the value of time - that is, of the best way to divide one's time into one's various activities.