Tom Bissell Quotes

I cannot sit and think; books think for me.

We read books to find out who we are.

Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.

You see, one of the best things about reading is that you'll always have something to think about when you're not reading.

Books think for me. I can read anything which I call a book.

We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.

A book is valuable not only for what it says but for what it makes you think, or causes you to remember. No matter what you wish to do or become there are books to teach you, help you, guide you.

Do the things you know, and you shall learn the truth you need to know.

What is the good of experience if you do not reflect?

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance.

I was on my own at Wellesley, surrounded by a lot of young women who were motivated and intellectually curious. I started to read because I was required to do so for class, but I soon found myself enjoying the seclusion of the library. I came to see reading as an important way to learn about people, including myself.

I've just tried to keep my eyes open, tried to read everything you can, and tried to see whether I see myself within it. If I do, then I can get excited about it.

You never really learn much from hearing yourself talk.

I've learnt to listen. I don't think I always did listen.

For solace, I love a book that opens up my perspective.

I'm interested in listening to the people who walk in the door. If your ego and your accomplishments stop you from listening, then they've taught you nothing.

Read not books alone, but men, and amongst them chiefly thyself.

If you think that you did everything and know everything and that everything has been done perfectly well, then it's time to retire.

I think the more we know the better we are. I mean not just facts. The more we know about each other, the closer we are to learn something about our selves.

When you find yourself alone, or in a transition, you dream more. These are also the times when you read books.

Our true birthplace is that in which we cast for the first time an intelligent eye on ourselves. My first homelands were my books.

Today I acknowledge that I am not in position to judge what mistakes anyone is making or what lessons anyone needs to learn. I don’t know how far someone has come or when that person will have a breakthrough, I simply don’t know what other people should be doing. But when I think I do know, I clearly am not doing what I should be doing, which is taking responsibility for my own life.

Humility is the doorway 2 truth & clarity of objectives... it's the doorway 2 learning.

I wasn't really testing it on myself as much as I was learning from other people about what it meant to live and love with your whole heart, and then thinking, oh my god, I'm not doing that.