“Though public libraries have an imposing air, and doubtless contain invaluable volumes, yet, somehow, the books that prove most agreeable, grateful, and companionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there; those which seem put into our hands by Providence; those which pretend to little, but abound in much.”

— Herman Melville, book White-Jacket

Source: White-Jacket (1850), Ch. 41

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American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet 1818–1891

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