"Indeed, the best books have a use,..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau
Indeed, the best books have a use, like sticks and stones, which is above or beside their design, not anticipated in the preface,not concluded in the appendix. Even Virgil's poetry serves a very different use to me today from what it did to his contemporaries. It has often an acquired and accidental value merely, proving that man is still man in the world.
More by Henry David Thoreau
“I think that the farmer displaces the Indian even because he redeems the meadow, and so makes himself stronger and in some respects more natural.”
“"Hear! hear!" screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, "winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it."”
“Having reached the term of his natural life"; Mwould it not be truer to say, Having reached the term of his unnatural life?”
More on Books
“Tis the good reader that makes the good book.”
“In the end all books are written for your friends.”
“Growing maturity is marked by the increasing liberties we take with our travelling... we made the discovery (some people never make it) that real books can be taken on a journey and that hours of golden reading can so be added to its other delights.”