intellectual indulgence Quotes

A large, still book is a piece of quietness, succulent and nourishing in a noisy world, which I approach and imbibe with "a sort of greedy enjoyment," as Marcel Proust said of those rooms of his old home whose air was "saturated with the bouquet of silence."

Me and a book is a party. Me and a book and a cup of coffee is an orgy.

It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip.

Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.

Wit, like hunger, will be with great difficulty restrained from falling on vice and ignorance, where there is great plenty and variety of food.

There are few greater temptations on earth than to stay permanently at Oxford in meditation, and to read all the books in the Bodlean.

There is such seduction in a library of good books that I cannot resist the temptation to luxuriate in reading.

A man's library is a sort of harem.

... if we have a dollar to spend on some wild excess, we shall spend it on a book, not on asparagus out of season.

'T is an old maxim in the schools, That flattery 's the food of fools; Yet now and then your men of wit Will condescend to take a bit.

The extravagance of intellect outstrips the extravagance of desire.

Avarice is to the intellect what sensuality is to the morals.

A novel is a commodity that fulfills a certain need; people need to buy daydreams like they need to buy ice cream or aspirin or gin. They even need to buy a pinch of intellectual catnip now and then to liven up their thoughts.