Read the Classics

I once heard it defined that a classic is any book you can read more than four times and still learn from. I thought it was an excellent definition. It covers all genres and certainly for me it singles out those books that are not classics.

What value do you place on great literature? I believe the greatest benefit of reading is to learn human nature. The classics are one of the best places to study how we as human beings feel, think, and react to different challenges. What do men and women typically do in a given situation? Effective leaders understand human nature and are able to use their knowledge to create change. Not all are interested in creating changes that will benefit everyone. Even those who lead to control and enslave are very well read.

Classics allow us to experience life and the consequences of choices without really experiencing them. They create not only feelings of sympathy and empathy, but open our minds, allowing us to ponder the problems of others, empowering us to solve our own problems with deeper understanding and reflection. Some of the many things we learn from books - without having to experience them ourselves - are love, life, forgiveness, sorrow, sacrifice, hate, envy, war, and all the human emotions you can think of. They create character. They are the great influencers.

How many societies were inspired by books? How many religions hold at their centers the written word from whence they draw much of their belief system. Certainly the founders of this great nation were not just political economists. They were well educated in all the classical literature of their time, studying many in the original language of the author.

Worthy Quotes- " The world is full of great classical literature. Life is too short to spend on anything less than the best" - Michelle Roberts

"A classic is a book you can read 4 or more times and you still learn something new every time." - Oliver DeMille

"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them" - Mark Twain

"If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads" - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is more treasure in a good book than can be found in all the world" - Disney

"When you sell a man a book you don't just sell him paper, ink, and glue, you sell him a whole new life! There is heaven and earth in a real book." - unknown

"The real purpose of books is to inspire the mind to do its own thinking." - unknown

"All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened, and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you." - Ernest Hemingway