He that I am reading seems always to have the most force.
And better had they ne'er been born,
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.
He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts.
Read Homer once, and you can read no more,
For all books else appear so mean, so poor,
Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need.
He that runs may read.
Studious let me sit,
And hold high converse with the mighty Dead.
Learn to read slow; all other graces
Will follow in their proper places.
REASON
Il n'est pas nécessaire de tenir les choses pour en raisonner.
It is not necessary to retain facts that we may reason concerning them.
Domina omnium et regina ratio.
Reason is the mistress and queen of all things.
Aristophanes turns Socrates into ridicule ... as making the worse appear the better reason.
He who will not reason, is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not, is a slave.
Two angels guide
The path of man, both aged and yet young,
As angels are, ripening through endless years,
On one he leans: some call her Memory,
And some Tradition; and her voice is sweet,
With deep mysterious accords: the other,
Floating above, holds down a lamp which streams
light divine and searching on the earth,
Compelling eyes and footsteps. Memory yields,
Yet clings with loving check, and shines anew,
Reflecting all the rays of that bright lamp
Our angel Reason holds. We had not walked
But for Tradition; we walk evermore
To higher paths by brightening Reason's lamp.
Reasons are not like garments, the worse for wearing.
Setting themselves against reason, as often as reason is against them.
Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.
I will it, I so order, let my will stand for a reason.
You have ravished me away by a Power I cannot resist; and yet I could resist till I saw you; and even since I have seen you I have endeavored often "to reason against the reasons of my Love."
La raison du plus fort est toujours la meilleure.
The reasoning of the strongest is always the best.
To be rational is so glorious a thing, that twolegged creatures generally content themselves with the title.
But all was false and hollow; though his tongue
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels.
Subdue
By force, who reason for their law refuse,
Right reason for their law.
Indu'd
With sanctity of reason.
Mais la raison n'est pas ce qui règle l'amour.
But it is not reason that governs love.
La parfaite raison fuit toute extremity,
Et veut que Ton soit sage avec sobrtetil.
All extremes does perfect reason flee,
And wishes to be wise quite soberly.
Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?
