--- title: "1 High Culture Quotes By Alan Jacobs" description: "1 High Culture quotes by Alan Jacobs. Plus more from Alan Jacobs and more High Culture sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/666/alan-jacobs-22461_better-person_responding-to-the-claim-that-not-just-re_3094249.jpg" --- > [“Responding to the claim that not just reading but "high culture" in general is morally improving, Terry Eagleton points out that, during World War II, "many people were indeed deep in high culture, but . . . this had not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/responding-to-the-claim-that-not-just-reading-but-high-culture-in/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/666/alan-jacobs-22461_better-person_responding-to-the-claim-that-not-just-re_3094249.jpg) ## More by Alan Jacobs > [“Objections to Christianity... are phrased in words, but that does not mean that they are really a matter of language and analysis and argument.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/objections-to-christianity-are-phrased-in-words-but-that-does-not/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“I would not be practicing love toward God OR my neighbour if I were to smile benignly on an unjust social order. It is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/i-would-not-be-practicing-love-toward-god-or-my-neighbour-if-i-were/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“So let me conclude this chapter with a celebration of splitting--of the disciplined, principled preference for rejecting categories whenever we discern them at work.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/so-let-me-conclude-this-chapter-with-a-celebration-of-splitting-of/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“…the blogosphere is the friend of information but the enemy of thought.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/the-blogosphere-is-the-friend-of-information-but-the-enemy-of-thought/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“a first encounter with a worthwhile book is never a complete encounter, and we are usually in error to make it a final one.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/a-first-encounter-with-a-worthwhile-book-is-never-a-complete/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“So the books are waiting. Of this you may be confident: they'll be ready when the whim strikes you.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/so-the-books-are-waiting-of-this-you-may-be-confident-they-ll-be/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“And yet rereading a book can often be a more significant, dramatic, and, yes, new experience than encountering an unfamiliar work.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/and-yet-rereading-a-book-can-often-be-a-more-significant-dramatic-and/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“The Virtue and unpretentiousness of the wise man, which I am talking about, goes unnoticed because of its transparent ordinariness.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/the-virtue-and-unpretentiousness-of-the-wise-man-which-i-am-talking/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“Great books are great in part because of what they ask of their readers: they are not readily encountered, easily assessed.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/great-books-are-great-in-part-because-of-what-they-ask-of-their/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“T. S. Eliot wrote almost a century ago about a phenomenon that he believed to be the product of the nineteenth century: “When there is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/t-s-eliot-wrote-almost-a-century-ago-about-a-phenomenon-that-he/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“Christian writers, whether they like it or not, do not simply write for themselves; for good or ill, readers will see their work as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/christian-writers-whether-they-like-it-or-not-do-not-simply-write-for/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“The blessing of Google is its uncanny skill in finding what you're looking for; the curse is that it so rarely finds any of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/the-blessing-of-google-is-its-uncanny-skill-in-finding-what-you-re/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“Dehaene even allows himself a few moments of (justifiable) annoyance at the way that "childhood reading experts" continue their debates about the best strategies…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/dehaene-even-allows-himself-a-few-moments-of-justifiable-annoyance-at/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“Slow down. Make a point of revisiting passages that seem especially rich, or especially confusing, or for that matter especially offensive.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/slow-down-make-a-point-of-revisiting-passages-that-seem-especially/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) > [“For heaven’s sake, don’t turn reading into the intellectual equivalent of eating organic greens, or (shifting the metaphor slightly) some fearfully disciplined appointment with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-jacobs/for-heaven-s-sake-don-t-turn-reading-into-the-intellectual-equivalent/) [Alan Jacobs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-jacobs/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/high-culture/alan-jacobs/#itemlist", "name": "1 High Culture Quotes By Alan Jacobs", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Responding to the claim that not just reading but \"high culture\" in general is morally improving, Terry Eagleton points out that, during World War II, \"many people were indeed deep in high culture, but . . . this had not prevented some of them from engaging in such activities as superintending the murder of Jews in central Europe.\" If reading really was supposed to \"make you a better person,\" then \"when the Allied troops moved into the concentration camps . . . to arrest commandants who had whiled away their leisure hours with a volume of Goethe, it appeared that someone had some explaining to do.\" So nothing about reading, or listening to Mozart sonatas, or viewing paintings by Raphael necessarily transforms or even improves someone's character. As the eighteenth-century scientist G. C. Lichtenberg once wrote, \"A book is like a mirror: if an ass looks in, you can't expect an apostle to look out.\" Nevertheless, I am going to argue . . . that if you really want to become a better person, there are ways in which reading can help. 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