“No furniture so charming as books.”

—  Sydney Smith

Vol. I, ch. 9
Lady Holland's Memoir (1855)
Source: A memoir of the Rev. Sydney Smith

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "No furniture so charming as books." by Sydney Smith?
Sydney Smith photo
Sydney Smith 68
English writer and clergyman 1771–1845

Related quotes

Horace Mann photo

“Books are not made for furniture but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.”

Horace Mann (1796–1859) American politician

The Duty of Owning Books (1859)
Context: Men are not accustomed to buy books unless they want them. If, on visiting the dwelling of a man of slender means, I find the reason why he has cheap carpets and very plain furniture to be that he may purchase books, he rises at once in my esteem. Books are not made for furniture but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

Horace Mann photo

“Give me a house furnished with books rather than furniture! Both, if you can, but books at any rate!”

Horace Mann (1796–1859) American politician

The Duty of Owning Books (1859)
Context: Give me a house furnished with books rather than furniture! Both, if you can, but books at any rate! To spend several days in a friend’s house and hunger for something to read, while you are treading on costly carpets, sitting upon luxurious chairs and sleeping upon down, is as if one were bribing your body for the sake of cheating your mind.

Augustine Birrell photo

“Great is bookishness and the charm of books.”

Augustine Birrell (1850–1933) British politician

"Bookworms"
In the Name of the Bodleian, and Other Essays

Alfred Austin photo

“Let your house
be spacious more than splendid, and be books
And busts your most conspicuous furniture.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: Savonarola (1881), Lorenzo de' Medici in Act I, sc. i; p. 6.

H.P. Lovecraft photo
Virginia Woolf photo
Henry Taylor photo

“For no syren did ever so charm the ear of the listener, as the listening ear has charmed the soul of the syren.”

Henry Taylor (1800–1886) English playwright and poet

Source: The Statesman (1836), Ch. 31. p. 239

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo
Natalie Merchant photo

“There's no other piece of furniture in my home I'd stare at for three hours at a time, so I try not to do it to the TV.”

Natalie Merchant (1963) American singer-songwriter

Orlando Sentinel (6 November 1992)
Context: I grew up as a TV baby, with my TV babysitter, up until I was about 10. Then my mother just ripped the thing out of the wall and put it in a closet, and we didn't watch it. I have that sort of ability to become addicted to it. And I'm just so fascinated by it once I turn it on, I'm not even that aware what's there. I'm just watching it. So I don't ever turn it on. I get my news from the newspaper. I don't want to watch the Hollywood news product on TV... There's no other piece of furniture in my home I'd stare at for three hours at a time, so I try not to do it to the TV.

Related topics