All that mankind has done, thought, gained or been: it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Books hold the records of all human achievement and experience.
- In plain terms
- All human history and thought are saved in books.
- What can you take from it?
- Books preserve human knowledge and accomplishments for future generations.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What knowledge is lost without writing?
- How do books shape our understanding of humanity?
Another view
Not all human experience is or can be recorded in books.
More from Thomas Carlyle
A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things.
Permalink to quote #83 What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.
Permalink to quote #85 In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished lik…
Permalink to quote #82
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