Jean de la Bruyère suggested there is one test of a good book: Does it lift your spirit?
We remember how a book made us feel. We especially remember the books that opened us to new horizons, new possibilities.
A similar remark is attributed to Maya Angelou, among others: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Angelou was speaking of people. La Bruyère was speaking of books. But it’s the same idea.
• Sources: La Bruyère is in The Practical Cogitator, selected and edited by Charles P. Curtis, Jr., and Ferris Greenslet; Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976, p. 3. The quote attributed to Maya Angelou also is attributed to others. The idea is a truism now, part of the culture. But the Quote Investigator has more here:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/04/06/they-feel/
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