There are some people who read too much: the bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as other men are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.
Interpretation
The quote critiques those who become so absorbed in reading that they lose touch with reality.
H. L. Mencken's quote discusses the dangers of excessive reading, suggesting that while books can be enlightening and diverting, they can also lead to a form of intellectual intoxication. The term 'bibliobibuli' humorously characterizes individuals who are so consumed by literature that they neglect the world around them, akin to being drunk. It warns against the idea of losing one's ability to perceive and engage with reality due to an obsession with books and knowledge.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of balance between reading and real-life experiences.
I know a good many men of great learning-that is, men born with an extraordinary eagerness and capacity to acquire knowledge. One and all, they tell me that they can't recall learning anything of any value in school. All that schoolmasters managed to accomplish with them was to test and determine the amount of knowledge that they had already acquired independently-and not infrequently the determination was made clumsily and inaccurately.
It takes a long while for a naturally trustful person to reconcile himself to the idea that after all God will not help him
It is the theory of all modern civilized governments that they protect and foster the liberty of the citizen; it is the practice of all of them to limit its exercise, and sometimes very narrowly.
The central belief of every moron is that he is the victim of a mysterious conspiracy against his common rights and true deserts.
The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy.
It is my conviction that no normal man ever fell in love, within the ordinary meaning of the term, after the age of thirty.
The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any.
In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.
Are we forming children who are only capable of learning what is already known? Or should we try to develop creative and innovative minds, capable of discovery from the preschool age on, throughout life?
It's hard to propose a $100 laptop for a world community of kids and then not say in the same breath that you're going to depend on the community to make software for it.
Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.
Each time I visit such a classroom, where the teacher is more interested in creating a democratic community than in maintaining her position of authority, I’m convinced all over again that moving away from consequences and rewards isn’t just realistic - it’s the best way to help kids grow into good learners and good people.
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