Augustine Birrell

“Good resolutions are a pleasant crop to sow.”

“Libraries are not made; they grow.”

“To be thrown upon one's own resources, is to be cast into the very lap of fortune.”

“The true historian, therefore, seeking to compose a true picture of a given period, must find out the age of the people, and what they were doing.”

“That great law of nature, that error is prolific.”

“That is the charm of a map. It represents the other side of the hill.”

“Fiction cannot be defended on the ground that it is not true. A novelist's business is not to let the public into the secrets of his own fancy, but to make the public share in the joys and sorrows of his characters.”

“In the open country, a man's privacy is every man's business.”

“It is the Mass that matters.”