You despise books; you, whose lives are absorbed in the vanities of
ambition, the pursuit of pleasure, or in indolence; but remember that
all the known world, excepting only savage nations, is governed by
books. All Africa, to the limits of Ethiopia and Nigritia, obeys the
book of the Koran, after bowing to the book of the Gospel. China is
ruled by the moral book of Confucius, and a great part of India by the
Vedah. Persia was governed for ages by the books of one of the
Zoroasters.
In a law-suit or criminal process, your property, your honour, perhaps
your life, depends on the interpretation of a book which you never
read.... You are acquainted with neither Hippocrates nor Boerhaave nor
Sydenham; but you place your body in the hands of those who can read
them.--VOLTAIRE. _Philosophical Dictionary_: Books.