Illan miete

It is the same in literature as in life: at every turn we encounter the unreformable rabble of mankind, present everywhere in droves, filling and spoiling everything, like flies in summer. Hence the immense number of bad books, those plentiful weeds of literature, which deprive the wheat of nourishment and choke it. They use up all the time and attention of the public, which by right belongs to good books and their noble aims. In this way they are not just useless but positively harmful. [...]
Because people always read only the newest instead of the best of all times, authors remain in the narrow sphere of circulating ideas and the age becomes more and more clogged up in its own sludge.
- Arthur Schopenhauer