It would be worth the while to select our reading, for books are the society we keep; to read only the serenely true; never statistics, nor fiction, nor news, nor reports, nor periodicals, but only great poems, and when they failed, read them again, or perchance write more.Instead of other sacrifice, we might offer up our perfect thoughts to the gods daily, in hymns or psalms. For we should be at the helm at least once a day. The whole of the day should not be day-time; there should be one hour, if no more, which the day did not bring forth.Scholars are wont to sell their birthright for a mess of learning. But is it necessary to know what the speculator prints, or the thoughtless study, or the idle read, the literature of the Russians and the Chinese,or even French philosophy and much of German criticism. Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
Planet of the Blind 