Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell KCwas an English Liberal Party politician, who was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916. In this post, he was praised for enabling tenant farmers to own their property, and for extending university education for Catholics. But he was criticised for failing to take action against the rebels before the Easter Rising, and resigned. A barrister by training, he was also an author, noted for humorous essays...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth19 January 1850
book men years
Given Pounds and five years, and an ordinary man can in the ordinary course, without any undue haste or putting any pressure upon his taste, surround himself with books, all in his own language, and thence forward have at least one place in the world.
giving pleasure
It can never be wrong to give pleasure.
book reading baths
A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators.
himself man ordinary possible thousand
An ordinary man can...surround himself with two thousand books...and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.
english-author himself man possible surround thousand
An ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.
english-author great history pageant
History is the great dust-heap... a pageant and not a philosophy.
book reading library
Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.
history library librarian
Libraries are not made, they grow.
past history doubt
I am far too much in doubt about the present, far too perturbed .about the future, to be otherwise than profoundly reverential about the past.
matter mass
It is the Mass that matters.
happiness book men
Any ordinary man can...surround himself with two thousand books...and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.
friendship heart sky
Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes the heart warm.
book eden heaven
There were no books in Eden, and there will be none in heaven
men doctrine aliens
There are no habits of man more alien to the doctrine of the Communist than those of the collector