“I hope that the reader will not regard the contents of this book as an escape from the present world but rather as a key part of it.”
Introduction
Adventures in the Nearest East (1957)
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Cyrus H. Gordon 73
American linguist 1908–2001Related quotes
Source: A Monk in the World: Cultivating a Spiritual Life (2003), p. 1

From the seventh book, "The Book of Youth"
The Pillow Book

Source: Civilizing Ourselves: Intellectual Maturity in the Modern World (1932), p. xi, Foreword

Source: The Demon-Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark (1995), Ch. 21 : The Path to Freedom, p. 357
Context: Books, purchasable at low cost, permit us to interrogate the past with high accuracy; to tap the wisdom of our species; to understand the point of view of others, and not just those in power; to contemplate — with the best teachers — the insights, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history. They allow people long dead to talk inside our heads. Books can accompany us everywhere. Books are patient where we are slow to understand, allow us to go over the hard parts as many times as we wish, and are never critical of our lapses. Books are key to understanding the world and participating in a democratic society.