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Quote#Books & Reading

The great British Library — an immense collection of volumes of all…

Quote byWashington Irving · 1783–1859

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819–1820), "The Art of Book-Making".

English (original)

The great British Library — an immense collection of volumes of all ages and languages, many of which are now forgotten, and most of which are seldom read: one of these sequestered pools of obsolete literature to which modern authors repair, and draw buckets full of classic lore, or “pure English, undefiled” wherewith to swell their own scanty rills of thought.

— Washington Irving

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