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I am not a great reader, and have pleasure in many things.
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“I am not a great reader, and have pleasure in many things.”

Jane Austen

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Source
Pride and Prejudice
Date
1813
Local voice
Fictional character · Elizabeth Bennet
Meaning

Meaning of “I am not a great reader, and have…”

Elizabeth lightly rejects the performance of bookish superiority, keeping reading in proportion to a broader and more independent personality.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Pride and Prejudice; Elizabeth answers a conversation in which reading is being used as a social signal.

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Speaker context

Why the local voice matters

Elizabeth says this at Netherfield after Miss Bingley calls her a great reader who takes pleasure in nothing else.

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BookFunnyIdentityReadingShort
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Choose what interests you.
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“Choose what interests you.”

Arnold Bennett · Mental Efficiency, and Other Hints to Men and Women · 1911
Meaning & context

Bennett recommends beginning intellectual cultivation with a subject capable of sustaining real attention instead of selecting study solely for appearance or prestige.

Source details

Mental Efficiency, discussion of reading and self-development. The short imperative belongs to Bennett’s practical advice about choosing a field for sustained personal study.

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Brevity is the soul of wit.
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“Brevity is the soul of wit.”

William Shakespeare · Hamlet · c. 1600
Voice: Fictional character · Polonius
Meaning & context

The line praises compression: saying less can sharpen meaning when the words that remain do real work.

Source details

Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2; Polonius says this while promising the King and Queen he will be brief, immediately before continuing at comic length. The dramatic irony is part of the line’s context.

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Others form man; I only report him.
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“Others form man; I only report him.”

Michel de Montaigne · Essays of Montaigne — Book III · 1588
Meaning & context

Rather than presenting an ideal model of humanity, Montaigne describes a particular changing self and makes observation central to his method.

Source details

Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Chapter II, “Of Repentance,” Charles Cotton translation; Project Gutenberg Volume 14 #3594 / Complete Essays #3600. Montaigne distinguishes reporting a changing particular self from constructing an ideal model of humanity.

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Of making many books there is no end.
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“Of making many books there is no end.”

Ecclesiastes · King James Bible — Ecclesiastes 12:12 · 1611
Meaning & context

The ancient observation sounds surprisingly modern: written material can multiply without limit, so discernment matters as much as sheer volume.

Source details

Ecclesiastes 12:12 in the King James Version; excerpt from the verse’s warning about endless book-making and study.

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I wish'd the man a dinner, and sat still.
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“I wish'd the man a dinner, and sat still.”

Alexander Pope · Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot · 1735
Meaning & context

The satirical speaker portrays restraint as refusing to escalate a literary attack, answering hostility with a comic wish that the critic’s need might be relieved.

Source details

An Epistle from Mr. Pope to Dr. Arbuthnot (1735 first-edition scan), printed page 8 / scan leaf 14, around lines 148–150. After saying Gildon drew his “venal quill,” Pope says he wished him a dinner and did not answer the attack. The first edition reads “sate still,” while the later/normalized Gutenberg #9800 witness underlying the frozen catalog reads “sat still”; this collection wording is retained and the witness variation is disclosed rather than silently rewritten.

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My intellectual horizon is infinitely wide.
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“My intellectual horizon is infinitely wide.”

Helen Keller · The World I Live In · 1908
Meaning & context

Intellectual possibility is framed as expansive because reading, thought, language, and imagination can continue enlarging a person’s world beyond immediate sensation.

Source details

The World I Live In (1908), Chapter XII, “The Larger Sanctions,” printed page 160, Project Gutenberg #27683. The sentence “My intellectual horizon is infinitely wide” immediately follows Keller’s assertion about mental vision and belongs to the same first-person philosophical defense of intellectual and imaginative range.

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