A library cannot be made all at once, any more than a house or a nation or a tree; they must all take time to grow, and so must a library. I wouldn’t even know what books to go and ask for. I dare say, if I were to try, I couldn’t at a moment’s notice tell you the names of more than two score of books at the outside. Folk must make acquaintance among books as they would among living folk.

A library cannot be made all at once, any more than a house or a nation or a tree; they must all take time to grow, and so must a library. I wouldn’t even know what books to go and ask for. I dare say, if I were to try, I couldn’t at a moment’s notice tell you the names of more than two score of books at the outside. Folk must make acquaintance among books as they would among living folk.

– George MacDonald –

The Fisherman’s Lady

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