He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator. Libraries are the shrines where all the relics of the ancient saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or imposture, are preserved and reposed. Our humanity were a poor thing were it not for the divinity which stirs within us. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Argument is like an arrow from a cross-bow, which has equal force though shot by a child. To read without reflecting, is like eating without digesting. We take cunning for a sinister and crooked wisdom, and certainly there is a great difference between a cunning man and a wise man, not only in point of honesty but in point of ability. All rising to a great place is by a winding stair.