Vom Zufall des Gelesenen hängt es ab, was du bist.

You are what you read.

No matter who you are, no matter where you live, and no matter how many people are chasing you, what you don't read is often as important as what you do read.

it makes such difference where you read

For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are.

If you read, you'll judge.

What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are.

If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write.

It's not about "educated" v "un-educated." It's about "likes to read" and "doesn't like to read."

A letter depends on how you read it, a melody on how you sing it.

People used to think that learning to read evidenced human progress; they still celebrate the decline of illiteracy as a great victory; they condemn countries with a large proportion of illiterates; they think that reading is a road to freedom. All this is debatable, for the important thing is not to be able to read, but to understand what one reads, to reflect on and judge what one reads. Outside of that, reading has no meaning (and even destroys certain automatic qualities of memory and observation). But to talk about critical faculties and discernment is to talk about something far above primary education and to consider a very small minority. The vast majority of people, perhaps ninety percent, know how to read, but do not exercise their intelligence beyond this. They attribute authority and eminent value to the printed word, or, conversely, reject it altogether. As these people do not possess enough knowledge to reflect and discern, they believe — or disbelieve — in toto what they read. And as such people, moreover, will select the easiest, not the hardest, reading matter, they are precisely on the level at which the printed word can seize and convince them without opposition. They are perfectly adapted to propaganda.

The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.

They say, tell me what you've read and I'll tell you who you are.

It's not about "educated" v "un-educated". It's about "likes to read" and "doesn't like to read".