The reading of good books is like a conversation with the best men of past centuries—in fact like a prepared conversation, in which they reveal only the best of their thoughts.

La lecture de tous les bons livres est comme une conversation avec les plus honnêtes gens des siècles passés, qui en ont été les auteurs, et même une conversation étudiée en laquelle ils ne nous découvrent que les meilleures de leurs pensées.

René Descartes

Discourse on Method

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More information about this quote

Topic

Power of literature Books

Author

René Descartes

Source

Discourse on Method

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1637 1630s 17th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Occupation

Mathematician Philosopher Writer

From

France Europe

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Descartes, Rene. Discours de la Méthode Pour bien conduire sa raison, et chercher la vérité dans les sciences [Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and Seeking Truth in the Sciences]. 1637, pt. 1.

Current Citation

Descartes, Rene. A Discourse on the Method. Translated by Ian Maclean. Oxford UP, 2008, pt. 1.

Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote about Power of literature

A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.

Franz Kafka

More information about this quote
Topic
Self-discovery Power of literature Books

Author

Franz Kafka
Source
Letters of Franz Kafka
Medium
Letter
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
German
Time
1904 1900s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Kafka, Franz. Letter to Oskar Pollak, January 27, 1904.

Current Citation

Kafka, Franz. "A Letter to Oskar Pollak," January 27, 1904. Franz Kafka: Letters to Friends, Family, and Editors. 1977. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. Schocken, 1990.

Another quote from Age of Enlightenment

Make the Revolution a parent of settlement, and not a nursery of future revolutions.

Edmund Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France

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Read Reflections on the Revolution in France at Project Gutenberg
More information about this quote
Topic
Revolution French Revolution

Author

Edmund Burke
Source
Reflections on the Revolution in France
Medium
Pamphlet
Genre
Political literature
Statement Type
Metaphor, analogy and simile
Language
English
Time
1790 1790s 18th century
Era
Age of Enlightenment
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. London: James Dodsley, 1790.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Reflections on the Revolution in France." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.

Another quote originally in French

Experience shows us that love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking together in the same direction.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

More information about this quote
Topic
Nature of love Love Relationships

Author

Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Source
Wind, Sand and Stars
Genre
Autobiography and memoir
Language
French
Time
1939 1930s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. Wind, Sand and Stars. Translated by Lewis Galantiere. Reynal and Hitchcock, 1939.

Current Citation

Saint-Exupery, Antoine de. Wind, Sand and Stars. Translated by Lewis Galantiere. Mariner Books, 2002.