Quote#Books & Reading
If I were asked what book is better than a cheap book, I should…
Quote byJames Russell Lowell · 1819–1891
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Before the U. S. Senate Committee on Patents (29 January 1886).
English (original)
If I were asked what book is better than a cheap book, I should answer that there is one book better than a cheap book, — and that is a book honestly come by.
— James Russell Lowell
More from James Russell Lowell
It is by presence of mind in untried emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested.
The only faith that wears well and holds its color in all weathers, is that which is woven of conviction and set with the sharp mordant of experience.
There is nothing so desperately monotonous as the sea, and I no longer wonder at the cruelty of pirates.
They came three thousand miles, and died, To keep the Past upon its throne; Unheard, beyond the ocean tide, Their English mother made her moan.
From lower to the higher next, Not to the top, is Nature’s text; And embryo Good, to reach full stature, Absorbs the Evil in its nature.
When I was a beggarly boy, And lived in a cellar damp, I had not a friend nor a toy, But I had Aladdin's lamp.