Source: Textual politics: Discourse and social dynamics, 1995, p. 10
“Do we write books so that they shall merely be read? Don't we also write them for employment in the household? For one that is read from start to finish, thousands are leafed through, other thousands lie motionless, others are jammed against mouseholes, thrown at rats, others are stood on, sat on, drummed on, have gingerbread baked on them or are used to light pipes.”
E 65
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook E (1775 - 1776)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg 137
German scientist, satirist 1742–1799Related quotes

Great Books: The Foundation of a Liberal Education (1954)

The Letters of Samuel Beckett 1929–1940 (2009), p. 362
Context: I think the next little bit of excitement is flying. I hope I am not too old to take it up seriously, nor too stupid about machines to qualify as a commercial pilot. I do not feel like spending the rest of my life writing books that no one will read. It is not as though I wanted to write them.
Source: Persecution and the Art of Writing (1952), How to Study Spinoza's Theologico-Political Treatise, p. 144

“Most rats read. Our frustration is, we cannot hold a pen to write.”


“A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books.”
Source: Sculpting in Time (1986), p. 177

Source: The Infernal Devices, Clockwork Princess (2013), p. 539, spoken by Will
reference to quote from Clockwork Angel
Context: I recall what you said to me once, that words have the power to change us. Your words have changed me, Tess; they have made me a better man than I would have been otherwise. Life is a book, and there are a thousand pages I have not yet read. I would read them together with you, as many as I can, before I die.