Augustine Birrell Quotes
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The true historian, therefore, seeking to compose a true picture of the thing acted, must collect facts and combine facts. Methods will differ, styles will differ. Nobody ever does anything like anybody else; but the end in view is generally the same, and the historian's end is truthful narration. Maxims he will have, if he is wise, never a one; and as for a moral, if he tell his story well, it will need none; if he tell it ill, it will deserve none.
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Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes the heart warm.
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I am far too much in doubt about the present, far too perturbed .about the future, to be otherwise than profoundly reverential about the past.
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It can never be wrong to give pleasure.
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It is pleasant to be admitted into the birth-chamber of a great idea destined to be translated into action.
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It is the Mass that matters.
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Any ordinary man can...surround himself with two thousand books...and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.
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A poet's soul must contain the perfect shape of all things good, wise and just. His body must be spotless and without blemish, his life pure, his thoughts high, his studies intense.
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Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.
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Few men can afford to be angry.
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Given Pounds and five years, and an ordinary man can in the ordinary course, without any undue haste or putting any pressure upon his taste, surround himself with books, all in his own language, and thence forward have at least one place in the world.
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There were no books in Eden, and there will be none in heaven
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[Milton] calls the university "A stony-hearted step-mother."
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That great dust-heap called 'history'.
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It is the Mass the matters.
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A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators.
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History is a pageant and not a philosophy.
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The man who has a library of his own collection is able to contemplate himself objectively, and is justified in believing in his own existence.
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There are no habits of man more alien to the doctrine of the Communist than those of the collector
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Great is bookishness and the charm of books.
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Libraries are not made, they grow.
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Poetry should be vital--either stirring our blood by its divine movements or snatching our breath by its divine perfection. To do both is supreme glory, to do either is enduring fame.
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Is this true or only clever?
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Personally, I am dead against the burning of books.
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A great library easily begets affection, which may deepen into love.
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Augustine Birrell
- Born: January 19, 1850
- Died: November 20, 1933
- Occupation: Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
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