When you read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before.

Fadiman’s point is that “classic” books do not merely deliver new information; they act as instruments of self-discovery. The text may be unchanged, but the reader is changed—by experience, education, and emotional development—so rereading reveals new resonances and meanings. The “more” you see is not hidden extra content in the book so much as newly awakened capacities in yourself: sharper perception, richer memory, deeper moral imagination, or a more complex sense of human motives. The remark also defends the value of rereading and of the canon: classics endure because they can meet readers at multiple stages of life, continually eliciting new insight.