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Augustine Birrell Quotes

Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.

Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.

Augustine Birrell (1969). “Obiter Dicta: Second Series”, p.169, Library of Alexandria

Libraries are not made, they grow.

Augustine Birrell (1899). “Collected Essays”

There were no books in Eden, and there will be none in heaven

Augustine Birrell (1922). “The Collected Essays & Addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

That great dust-heap called 'history'.

Obiter Dicta "Carlyle" (1884) See Trotsky 2

It is the Mass that matters.

Augustine Birrell (1922). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

A great library easily begets affection, which may deepen into love.

Augustine Birrell (1922). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

History is a pageant and not a philosophy.

Augustine Birrell (1902). “Collected Essays”

Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes the heart warm.

Augustine Birrell (1922). “The Collected Essays & Addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

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.

Augustine Birrell (1885). “Obiter Dicta ...: Carlye. On the alleged obscurity of Mr. Browning's poetry. Truth-hunting. Actors. A rogue's memoirs. The via media. Falstaff [by George Radford”

Great is bookishness and the charm of books.

"In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays". Book by Augustine Birrell, 1905.

Few men can afford to be angry.

Edmund Burke, Augustine Birrell (1945). “Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America”

Personally, I am dead against the burning of books.

Augustine Birrell (1922). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

There are no habits of man more alien to the doctrine of the Communist than those of the collector

Augustine Birrell (1922). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

It can never be wrong to give pleasure.

Augustine Birrell (1922). “The Collected Essays & Addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

It is pleasant to be admitted into the birth-chamber of a great idea destined to be translated into action.

Augustine Birrell (1922). “The collected essays & addresses of the Rt. Hon. Augustine Birrell, 1880-1920 ...”

[Milton] calls the university "A stony-hearted step-mother."

"Obiter Dicta". Book by Augustine Birrell, 1884.