As long as reading is for us the instigator whose magic keys have opened the door to those dwelling-places deep within us that we would not have known how to enter, its role in our lives is salutary. It becomes dangerous, on the other hand, when, instead of awakening us to the personal life of the mind, reading tends to take its place, when the truth no longer appears to us as an ideal which we can realize only by the intimate progress of our own thought and the efforts of our heart, but as something material, deposited between the leaves of books like a honey fully prepared by others and which we need only take the trouble to reach down from the shelves of libraries and then sample passively in a perfect repose of mind and body. Marcel Proust
About This Quote

In this quote, Goethe is saying that reading can be dangerous if it takes over your life. Instead, he suggests that reading should be a means of awakening our own thoughts and emotions. In other words, reading should not be a bodiless experience but rather a way to deepen our connection with the world around us. When we read a book we become an active participant in the story being told, coming up with our own ideas and feelings as well as participating in the thoughts and feelings of the characters.

We must never forget that books are written for us as well as for those who have come before us. As long as we read for our own growth and gain from it, books will never become dangerous.

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