Gold, silver, jewels, purple garments, houses built of marble, groomed estates, pious paintings, caparisoned steeds, and other things of this kind offer a mutable and superficial pleasure; books give delight to the very marrow of one’s bones. They speak to us, consult with us, and join with us in a living and intense intimacy.
“As anyone who has taken part in a strike or a demonstration will know, reports of events that challenge the established order can be distorted by the next morning, never mind 200 years later. And, as is the case with plenty of those modern events, once you remove the prejudice that anyone involved was fundamentally rotten, an entirely different picture emerges.”
Mark Steel | Vive la Revolution