These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper,
but minds alive on the shelves. From each of
them goes out its own voice... and just as the
touch of a button on our set will fill the room
with music, so by taking down one of these
volumes and opening it, one can call into range
the voice of a man far distant in time and space,
and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind,
heart to heart. ~Gilbert Highet
That place that does contain
My books, the best companions, is to me
A glorious court, where hourly I converse
With the old sages and philosophers;
And sometimes, for variety, I confer
With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels;
Calling their victories, if unjustly got,
Unto a strict account, and, in my fancy,
Deface their ill-placed statues.
~Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
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