Augustine Birrell Quotes

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

  Augustine Birrell

  Book, Reading, Library

  Augustine Birrell (1969). “Obiter Dicta: Second Series”, p.169, Library of Alexandria

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• 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.

  Augustine Birrell

  Reading, Book, Baths

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• Libraries are not made, they grow.

  Augustine Birrell

  History, Library, Librarian

  Augustine Birrell (1899). “Collected Essays”

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

  Augustine Birrell

  Friendship, Heart, Sight

  Augustine Birrell (1922). “The Collected Essays & Addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

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• 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.

  Augustine Birrell

  Happiness, Book, Men

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• It is the Mass that matters.

  Augustine Birrell

  Matter, Mass

  Augustine Birrell (1922). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

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• There were no books in Eden, and there will be none in heaven

  Augustine Birrell

  Book, Eden, Heaven

  Augustine Birrell (1922). “The Collected Essays & Addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

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• Great is bookishness and the charm of books.

  Augustine Birrell

  Book, Charm

  "In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays". Book by Augustine Birrell, 1905.

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• It is the Mass the matters.

  Augustine Birrell

  Matter, Worship, Mass

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• History is a pageant and not a philosophy.

  Augustine Birrell

  Philosophy, History, Pageant

  Augustine Birrell (1902). “Collected Essays”

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• I am far too much in doubt about the present, far too perturbed .about the future, to be otherwise than profoundly reverential about the past.

  Augustine Birrell

  Past, History, Doubt

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• That great dust-heap called 'history'.

  Augustine Birrell

  Dust, History, World History

  Obiter Dicta "Carlyle" (1884) See Trotsky 2

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• Few men can afford to be angry.

  Augustine Birrell

  Anger, Men, Angry

  Edmund Burke, Augustine Birrell (1945). “Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America”

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• A poet's soul must contain the perfect shape of all things good, wise and just. His body must be spotless and without blemish, his life pure, his thoughts high, his studies intense.

  Augustine Birrell

  Wise, Perfect, Soul

  Augustine Birrell (1902). “Collected Essays”

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• Poetry should be vital--either stirring our blood by its divine movements or snatching our breath by its divine perfection. To do both is supreme glory, to do either is enduring fame.

  Augustine Birrell

  Blood, Perfection, Poetry

  Augustine Birrell (1885). “Obiter Dicta ...: Carlye. On the alleged obscurity of Mr. Browning's poetry. Truth-hunting. Actors. A rogue's memoirs. The via media. Falstaff [by George Radford”

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• The true historian, therefore, seeking to compose a true picture of the thing acted, must collect facts and combine facts. Methods will differ, styles will differ. Nobody ever does anything like anybody else; but the end in view is generally the same, and the historian's end is truthful narration. Maxims he will have, if he is wise, never a one; and as for a moral, if he tell his story well, it will need none; if he tell it ill, it will deserve none.

  Augustine Birrell

  Wise, Views, Style

  Augustine Birrell (1923). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920”

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• It can never be wrong to give pleasure.

  Augustine Birrell

  Giving, Pleasure

  Augustine Birrell (1922). “The Collected Essays & Addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

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

  Augustine Birrell

  Men, Doctrine, Aliens

  Augustine Birrell (1922). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

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• 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.

  Augustine Birrell

  Believe, Men, Library

  Augustine Birrell (1902). “Collected Essays”

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• Personally, I am dead against the burning of books.

  Augustine Birrell

  Book, Burning

  Augustine Birrell (1922). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

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• It is pleasant to be admitted into the birth-chamber of a great idea destined to be translated into action.

  Augustine Birrell

  Ideas, Action, Birth

  Augustine Birrell (1922). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

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

  Augustine Birrell

  Library, May, Affection

  Augustine Birrell (1922). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

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• Is this true or only clever?

  Augustine Birrell

  Inspirational, Clever, Internet

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

  Augustine Birrell

  Education, Mother, Steps

  "Obiter Dicta". Book by Augustine Birrell, 1884.

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• 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.

  Augustine Birrell

  Book, Men, Years

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