A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog's ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins.

Charles Lamb
About This Quote

"A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog's ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins." This quote is an example of an author's humility. A person's modesty about their own work is a great attribute. It allows the reader to more easily connect with the author. When you have no confidence in your own work, you have trouble connecting with others.

Source: Essays Of Elia

Some Similar Quotes
  1. A half-read book is a half-finished love affair. - David Mitchell
  2. If one wanted to depict the whole thing graphically, every episode, with its climax, would require a three-dimensional, or, rather, no model: every experience is unrepeatable. What makes lovemaking and reading resemble each other most is that within both of them times and spaces open,... - Italo Calvino
  3. We shouldn't teach great books we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement. - B.F. Skinner
  4. Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. - Gustave Flaubert
  5. People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. - Logan Pearsall Smith
More Quotes By Charles Lamb
  1. I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early.
  2. I love to lose myself in other men's minds.... Books think for me.
  3. Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.
  4. A book reads the better which is our own, and has been so long known to us, that we know the topography of its blots, and dog's ears, and can trace the dirt in it to having read it at tea with buttered muffins.
  5. There is more reason to say grace before beginning a book than there is to say it before beginning to dine.
Related Topics