Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Who said: "These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves"

BookBrowse's Favorite Quotes

"These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves"

Gilbert HighetGilbert Highet (1906-78) was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He graduated from Oxford in 1932 with a double first and taught there until 1937, before going to Columbia University where he became an exceptionally popular Humanities teacher. He stayed at Columbia until he retired in 1972 (except for 3 years in the British Army from 1943-46).

He was chief literary critic for Harper's Magazine from 1952-54, judge of the Book-of-the-Month Club from 1954-78 and author of many books including The Classical Tradition (1949) and The Art of Teaching (1950). He also hosted weekly radio talks from 1952-59. He was married to the novelist Helen MacInnes.

More Quotes

This quote & biography originally ran in an issue of BookBrowse's membership magazine. Full Membership Features & Benefits.

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Margo's Got Money Troubles
    Margo's Got Money Troubles
    by Rufi Thorpe
    Forgive me if I begin this review with an awkward confession. My first impression of author Rufi ...
  • Book Jacket: Our Evenings
    Our Evenings
    by Alan Hollinghurst
    Alan Hollinghurst's novel Our Evenings is the fictional autobiography of Dave Win, a British ...
  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

Polite conversation is rarely either.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.