Aqui fica uma frase de Ralph Waldo Emerson, escritor norte-americano do século XIX, citada no livro que estou a ler, A History of Reading:

"All these books are the majestic expression of the universal conscience, and are more to our daily purpose than this year's almanac or this day's newspaper. But they are for the closet, and are to be read on the bended knee. Their communications are not to be given or taken with the lips and the end of the tongue, but out of the glow of the cheek, and with the throbbing heart."

Woman reading by candlelight, Peter Vilhelm (1861-1933)