A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
In plain words
Read what excites you, not just what you're told to. That's when reading actually helps you.
Where these words come from
- 60% sureLots of sources credit Samuel Johnson with this, and they agree with each other. The book or the speech it first came from hasn't turned up yet.
- Recorded conversation of 14 July 1763 in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). Boswell's contemporaneous record is a real named work, but not a work BY Johnson — testimony class, held at likely per the house Bohr precedent.
- Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson
- 1763 · conversation recorded by James Boswell
