Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.”
- Source
- Discourses of Epictetus
- Date
- c. 125
- English wording
- George Long — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning of “If you would be a good reader, read;…”
Skill grows through repeated practice rather than through wanting the identity without doing the activity.
Where does it come from?
Discourses of Epictetus, Book II, Chapter XVIII, “How we should struggle against appearances,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. Epictetus explains that habits and faculties are maintained by corresponding actions: “If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.”
