For books are more than books, they are the life
The very heart and core of ages past,
The reason why men lived and worked and died,
The essence and quintessence of their lives.
Source: The Boston Athenaeum, in A Dome of Many-Colored Glass, 1912.
-- Amy Lowell, (Feb 9 1874-1925), US poet, critic, lecturer; She was a leading poet of the Imagist school.