甚至在他的眼睛开始失败之前，他让他的秘书读给他，然后由于眼镜引起了他的烦恼，他没有其他读书。但是他对他所读的东西的兴趣同时减少了，他一如既往地将其归因于他无法控制的原因。“事实是，好书越来越少，”他会说。
(Even before his eyes began to fail he had his secretaries read to him, and then he read no other way because of the annoyance that eyeglasses caused him. But his interest in what he read was decreasing at the same time, and as always he attributed this to a cause beyond his control."The fact is there are fewer and fewer good books," he would say.)