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

Fadiman’s remark frames “the classic” as a stable object whose words do not change, while the reader does. On rereading, the apparent discovery of “more” in the text is really the discovery of new capacities in oneself—greater experience, altered values, sharper perception, or deeper emotional range. The quote also defends rereading as an essential part of serious reading: it is a way to measure personal growth and to test how one’s mind and character have developed over time. In this view, classics endure not because they contain infinite hidden content, but because they continually meet readers at new stages of life.