Books Quote by James Russell Lowell
“Literature, properly so called, draws its sap from the deep soil of human nature's common and everlasting sympathies, the gathered leaf-mound of countless generations, and not from any top dressing capriciously scattered over the surface.”
![“One writes such a story [The Lord of the Rings] not out of the leaves of trees still to be observed, nor by means of botany and soil-science; but it grows like a seed in the dark out of the leaf-mold of the mind: out of all that has been seen or thought or read, that has long ago been forgotten…” quote by J. R. R. Tolkien](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e14/j-r-r-tolkien-2-1316_botany_one-writes-such-a-story-the-lord-of-the_2687967.jpg)
![“If [literature] should turn into pure propaganda or pure entertainment, society will slip back into the sty of the immediate -- which is to say, the memoryless existence of hymenoptera and gastropods. None of this is so important, to be sure. The world can get by nicely without literature. But…” quote by Jean-Paul Sartre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/83d/jean-paul-sartre-220_books_if-literature-should-turn-into-pure-prop_2363349.jpg)
![“[B]ut in literature, it should be remembered, a thing always becomes his at last who says it best, and thus makes it his own.” quote by James Russell Lowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/4fa/james-russell-lowell-561_books_b-ut-in-literature-it-should-be-remember_55085.jpg)
