“But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries.”

—  Christopher Morley , book The Haunted Bookshop

The Haunted Bookshop (1919)
Context: Printer's ink has been running a race against gunpowder these many, many years. Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gunpowder in half a second, while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries.

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Christopher Morley 30
American journalist, novelist, essayist and poet 1890–1957

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