But knowledge is not as much a prerequisite to understanding as is commonly supposed. We do not have to know everything about something in order to understand it; too many facts are often as much of an obstacle to understanding as too few. (Location 87)
Completely passive reading is impossible; we cannot read with our eyes immobilized and our minds asleep. (Location 101)
Thus we can roughly define what we mean by the art of reading as follows: the process whereby a mind, with nothing to operate on but the symbols of the readable matter, and with no help from outside,I elevates itself by the power of its own operations. The mind passes from understanding less to understanding more. (Location 146)
To be informed is to know simply that something is the case. To be enlightened is to know, in addition, what it is all about: why it is the case, what its connections are with other facts, in what respects it is the same, in what respects it is different, and so forth. (Location 192)
Enlightenment is achieved only when, in addition to knowing what an author says, you know what he means and why he says it. (Location 197)
There is no inactive learning, just as there is no inactive reading. (Location 211)
teaching is a very special art, sharing with only two other arts—agriculture and medicine—an exceptionally important characteristic. (Location 213)
The art of reading, in short, includes all of the same skills that are involved in the art of unaided discovery: keenness of observation, readily available memory, range of imagination, and, of course, an intellect trained in analysis and reflection. (Location 236)
listening is learning from a teacher who is present—a living teacher—while reading is learning from one who is absent. (Location 243)
Reading, like unaided discovery, is learning from an absent teacher. We can only do that successfully if we know how. (Location 263)
If inspectional reading is the best and most complete reading that is possible given a limited time, then analytical reading is the best and most complete reading that is possible given unlimited time. (Location 303)