Quotes from Wayne C. Booth

There is pleasure from learning the simple truth, and there is a pleasure from learning that the truth is not simple.

the author's judgment is always present, always evident to anyone who knows how to look for it. Whether its particular forms are harmful or serviceable is always a complex question, a question that cannot be settled by any easy reference to abstract rules. As we begin now to deal with this question, we must never forget that though the author can to some extent choose his disguises, he can never choose to disappear.

intellectual understanding is one of the best versions of the Golden Rule: Listen to others as you would have others listen to you. Precise demonstration of truth is important but not as important as the communal pursuit of it. Put in terms of Kant's categorical imperative, When addressing someone else's ideas, your obligation is to treat them as you believe all human beings ought to treat one another's ideas. WAYNE C. BOOTH

When teachers are fully successful, they are successful beyond any of their conscious intentions about particular subjects: they make converts, they make souls that have been turned around to face a given way of being and moving in the world.

the implied Shakespeare is thoroughly engaged with life, and he does not conceal his judgment on the selfish, the foolish, and the cruel.

That sense of contributing to a community is never more rewarding than when you discover something that you believe can improve your readers' lives by changing what and how they think.

no place is more filled with imagined voices than a library.

The most important unacknowledged narrators in modern fiction are the third-person "centers of consciousness" through whom authors have filtered their narratives.

In any reading experience there is an implied dialogue among author, narrator, the other characters, and the reader.

When we understand not just the superficial shape of those elements but how they help us think about our research and its reporting, we are better able to plan, evaluate, and, most important, use the process not just to produce a good report but to think better about our entire project. The elements of a report-its structure, style, and methods of proof-are not empty formulas for convincing readers to accept our claims: they help us test our work and even discover new lines of thought.

Only in intimacy with obscenity can one know what is obscene.

Our main quarrel is with the author who makes his personal appearance a substitute for the artistic presentation of his subject, thinking that talking about the subject is equivalent to presenting it."6

Es por eso que cuando aprendes a investigar aprendes también a valorar la investigación confiable y transmitida en forma clara y exacta.