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We get no good
By being ungenerous, even to a book,
And calculating profits—so much help
By so much reading. It is rather when
We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge
Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound,
Impassioned for its beauty, and salt of truth—
'Tis then we get the right good from a book.

— Elizabeth Barrett Browning Aurora Leigh (1856)

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More quotes by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

There Shakespeare, on whose forehead climb
The crowns o’ the world; oh, eyes sublime
With tears and laughter for all time!

Poems (1844)

If thou must love me, let it be for nought
Except for love's sake only.

Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

Thou large-brained woman and large-hearted man.

Poems (1844)

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)

All Elizabeth Barrett Browning quotes →

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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: Elizabeth Barrett Browning (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.