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Quote#Books & Reading

Give me a house furnished with books rather than furniture! Both, if…

Quote byHorace Mann · 1796–1859

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Duty of Owning Books (1859).

English (original)

Give me a house furnished with books rather than furniture! Both, if you can, but books at any rate! To spend several days in a friend’s house and hunger for something to read, while you are treading on costly carpets, sitting upon luxurious chairs and sleeping upon down, is as if one were bribing your body for the sake of cheating your mind.

— Horace Mann

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