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One cannot help feeling that its guardians sometimes miss the point of literature, which is not to cut gems of flashing and exquisite rarity but to communicate, to convey a meaning, an art, a story, a fantasy, even a mystery, to someone.

— Barbara Tuchman

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More quotes by Barbara Tuchman

When truth and reason cannot be heard, then must presumption rule.

A Distant Mirror (1978)

Nothing is more certain than death and nothing uncertain but its hour.

A Distant Mirror (1978)

Against men habituated to lawless force, violent punishment failed to bring the violence under control.

A Distant Mirror (1978)

If it is not profitable for the common good that authority should be retained, it ought to be relinquished.

A Distant Mirror (1978)

For most people reform meant relief from ecclesiastical extortions.

A Distant Mirror (1978)

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Barbara Tuchman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.