“A leitura é uma conversação com os homens mais ilustres dos séculos passados.”

la lecture de tous les bons livres est comme une conversation avec les plus honnêtes gens des siècles passés qui en ont été les auteurs
Discours de la méthode, Les passions de l'âme, Lettres - Página 17 https://books.google.com.br/books?id=VTMMAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA17, René Descartes - Éditions du Monde Moderne, 1637, 280 páginas
Discurso do método (1637)

Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
The Essays, or Councils, civil and moral of Sir Francis Bacon ... With a Table of the Colours of Good and Evil. And a Discourse of the Wisdom of the Ancients (done into English by Sir Arthur Gorges). To this edition is added the Character of Queen Elizabeth; never before printed in English, página 135 https://books.google.com.br/books?id=ripcAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA135, Francis Bacon, ‎Sir Arthur GORGES - R. Chiswell, 1706
Variante: A leitura faz ao homem completo; a conversa, ágil, e o escrever, preciso.

Em discurso http://www.ebooksbrasil.org/eLibris/corporativo.html#bm3 de 16 de outubro de 1934.

I tread in the footsteps of illustrious men... in receiving from the people the sacred trust confided to my illustrious predecessor.
Discurso de posse (Inaugural Address) (4 de março de 1837)