Quotes from Augustine Birrell

History is the great dust-heap... a pageant and not a philosophy.

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.

Few men can afford to be angry.

There are no habits of man more alien to the doctrine of the Communist than those of the collector

[Milton] calls the university "A stony-hearted step-mother."

An ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is always possible to be happy.

Libraries are not made, they grow.

Is this true or only clever?

Given Pounds and five years, and an ordinary man can in the ordinary course, without any undue haste or putting any pressure upon his taste, surround himself with books, all in his own language, and thence forward have at least one place in the world.

An ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.

An ordinary man can... surround himself with two thousand books... and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.

Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes the heart warm.

That great dust-heap called 'history'.

History is a pageant and not a philosophy.

An ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is always possible to be happy.

Libraries are not made; they grow. Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.

Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.

Libraries are not made; they grow.

The man who has a library of his own collection is able to contemplate himself objectively, and is justified in believing in his own existence.

Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable.

Any ordinary man can...surround himself with two thousand books...and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.

An ordinary man can...surround himself with two thousand books...and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which is is possible to be happy.

That great dust-heap called 'history'.

A great library easily begets affection, which may deepen into love.