Augustine Birrell

Poetry should be vital--either stirring our blood by its divine movements or snatching our breath by its divine perfection. To do both…

— Augustine Birrell

It can never be wrong to give pleasure.

— Augustine Birrell

A poet's soul must contain the perfect shape of all things good, wise and just. His body must be spotless and without…

— Augustine Birrell

A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is…

— Augustine Birrell

Libraries are not made, they grow.

— Augustine Birrell

That great dust-heap called 'history'.

— Augustine Birrell

“Libraries are not made; they grow. Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.”

— Augustine Birrell

“An ordinary man can...surround himself with two thousand books...and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which is is…

— Augustine Birrell

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

— Augustine Birrell

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

— Augustine Birrell

It is the Mass the matters.

— Augustine Birrell

Milton calls the university A stony-hearted step-mother.

— Augustine Birrell

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

— Augustine Birrell

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

— Augustine Birrell

I am far too much in doubt about the present, far too perturbed .about the future, to be otherwise than profoundly reverential…

— Augustine Birrell

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

— Augustine Birrell

It is the Mass that matters.

— Augustine Birrell

The true historian, therefore, seeking to compose a true picture of the thing acted, must collect facts and combine facts. Methods will…

— Augustine Birrell

Given Pounds and five years, and an ordinary man can in the ordinary course, without any undue haste or putting any pressure…

— Augustine Birrell

Few men can afford to be angry.

— Augustine Birrell

Is this true or only clever?

— Augustine Birrell

Great is bookishness and the charm of books.

— Augustine Birrell

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

— Augustine Birrell

History is the great dust-heap... a pageant and not a philosophy.

— Augustine Birrell

The man who has a library of his own collection is able to contemplate himself objectively, and is justified in believing in…

— Augustine Birrell