“Lending a favorite book has its risks; the borrower may not like it. I still don’t know a better novel than Crime and Punishment—still, every fourth or fifth borrower returns it unfinished: it depresses him; besides that, he didn’t believe it. More borrowers than this return the first volume of Remembrance of Things Past unfinished: they were bored. There is no book you can lend people that all of them will like.”
“An Unread Book”, p. 50
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)
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Randall Jarrell215
poet, critic, novelist, essayist 1914–1965Related quotes
Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer
I, who ne'er<br>Went for myself a begging, go a borrowing,<br>And that for others. Borrowing's much the same<br>As begging; just as lending upon usury<br>Is much the same as thieving. <br class="br">Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise (1779), Act II, scene II http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/natws10.txt <br class="br">Misattributed
Benjamin Graham (1894–1976) American investor
Part III, Chapter XIII, The Reservoir Plan and Credit Control, p. 154
Storage and Stability (1937)
“Borrow trouble for yourself, if that's your nature, but don't lend it to your neighbours. ”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781) writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic
Nathan the Wise http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/natws10.txt (1779), Act II, scene II
Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Context: Acquaintance, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
1860s, A Short Autobiography (1860)
Context: After the election he borrowed books of Stuart, took them home with him, and went at it in good earnest. He studied with nobody. He still mixed in the surveying to pay board and clothing bills. When the legislature met, the law-books were dropped, but were taken up again at the end of the session. He was reëlected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. In the autumn of 1836 he obtained a law license, and on April 15, 1837, removed to Springfield, and commenced the practice — his old friend Stuart taking him into partnership.<!--p.19
