Quote

1837·Cambridge, Massachusetts

Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst. What is the right use? What is the one end, which all means go to effect? They are for nothing but to inspire.

Read the source→The American Scholar

Similar Thoughts

Arthur Schopenhauer·1851

Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.

Arthur Schopenhauer·1851

Bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind.

Francis Bacon·1625

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

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More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

1844·Boston

Life is a journey, not a destination.

1841

Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.

1841·Concord, Massachusetts, USA

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Locus

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Tempus