“Objections to Christianity... are phrased in words, but that does not mean that they are really a matter of language and analysis… — Alan Jacobs Argument Copy Share Image
“I would not be practicing love toward God OR my neighbour if I were to smile benignly on an unjust social order.… — Alan Jacobs Ethics Copy Share Image
“So let me conclude this chapter with a celebration of splitting--of the disciplined, principled preference for rejecting categories whenever we discern them… — Alan Jacobs Copy Share Image
“…the blogosphere is the friend of information but the enemy of thought.” — Alan Jacobs Blog Copy Share Image
“a first encounter with a worthwhile book is never a complete encounter, and we are usually in error to make it a… — Alan Jacobs Books Copy Share Image
“So the books are waiting. Of this you may be confident: they'll be ready when the whim strikes you.” — Alan Jacobs Books Copy Share Image
“And yet rereading a book can often be a more significant, dramatic, and, yes, new experience than encountering an unfamiliar work.” — Alan Jacobs Book Copy Share Image
“The Virtue and unpretentiousness of the wise man, which I am talking about, goes unnoticed because of its transparent ordinariness.” — Alan Jacobs Ordinariness Copy Share Image
“Great books are great in part because of what they ask of their readers: they are not readily encountered, easily assessed.” — Alan Jacobs Books Copy Share Image
“T. S. Eliot wrote almost a century ago about a phenomenon that he believed to be the product of the nineteenth century: “When… — Alan Jacobs Great man Copy Share Image
“Christian writers, whether they like it or not, do not simply write for themselves; for good or ill, readers will see their… — Alan Jacobs Argument Copy Share Image
“The blessing of Google is its uncanny skill in finding what you're looking for; the curse is that it so rarely finds… — Alan Jacobs Books Copy Share Image
“Dehaene even allows himself a few moments of (justifiable) annoyance at the way that "childhood reading experts" continue their debates about the… — Alan Jacobs Children Copy Share Image
“Slow down. Make a point of revisiting passages that seem especially rich, or especially confusing, or for that matter especially offensive.” — Alan Jacobs Books Copy Share Image
“For heaven’s sake, don’t turn reading into the intellectual equivalent of eating organic greens, or (shifting the metaphor slightly) some fearfully disciplined… — Alan Jacobs Copy Share Image
“In a lovely book called On Hope, Josef Pieper explores Thomas Aquinas' theology of hope along these lines: the hopeful person is… — Alan Jacobs Books Copy Share Image
“Read what gives you delight—at least most of the time—and do so without shame. And even if you are that rare sort… — Alan Jacobs Books Copy Share Image
“The book that simply demands to be read, for no good reason, is asking us to change our lives by putting aside… — Alan Jacobs Book Copy Share Image
“In investigating the lumpings that have shaped societies past and present, we should, I believe, be charitable toward those who merely inherited… — Alan Jacobs Information overload Copy Share Image
“all of us at various times in our lives believe true things for poor reasons, and false things for good reasons, and… — Alan Jacobs Right or wrong Copy Share Image
“Those who will never be fooled can never be delighted, because without self-forgetfulness there can be no delight, and this is a… — Alan Jacobs Delight Copy Share Image
“Readers who wish to follow Whim rather than whim--readers who have learned enough about what he or she really thrives on to… — Alan Jacobs Books Copy Share Image
“When we talk today about receptiveness to stories, we tend to contrast that attitude to one governed by reason - we talk… — Alan Jacobs C-s-lewis Copy Share Image
“Responding to the claim that not just reading but "high culture" in general is morally improving, Terry Eagleton points out that, during… — Alan Jacobs Better person Copy Share Image
“The past is our always-available counterculture, and it's a rich one. Every minute you spend attending to something not-immediately-present, you are helping… — Alan Jacobs Attention Copy Share Image
