Laudator Temporis Acti

Friedrich Ritschl, "Zur Methode des philologischen Studiums," Opuscula Philologica, Vol. V (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1879), pp. 19–32 (at 28; tr. Charles Forster Smith):

Read, read much, read very much, read as much as possible.

Lesen, viel lesen, sehr viel lesen, möglichst viel lesen.

Charles Forster Smith, "Preparing for College in the Old South," Christian Advocate 86.26 (July 26, 1925) 907-908 (at 908):

Once fairly started in reading Latin and Greek, our rapid, intensive procedure was the very best. I soon got so familiar with Xenophon's constructions and vocabulary that I could read my next day's lesson in the "Anabasis" while riding homeward in the buggy with my feet hanging over the side as my father drove. All that I read in that long ago period is still fairly vivid to me, except the Livy. I did not get as much out of it at the time, and it has not stayed with me like the Sallust, Vergil, Cicero, and Xenophon.

I have often said to students in later years: "I have a simple, easy rule for learning to read Greek: 'Read plenty of it.'" A great German scholar had said the same thing in better form long before: "Read, read much, read very much, read as much as possible." But I had not heard of his saying then. A Rhodes scholar once wrote me: "I have had occasion to test your rule for reading Greek over here. We have to read quantities of Greek. When Herodotus is assigned, it means all Herodotus; when Plato's 'Republic,' it means all the ten books. So I have had to apply your rule, and it works."