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We must have books for recreation and entertainment, as well as books for instruction and for business; the former are agreeable, the latter useful, and the human mind requires both. The canon law and the codes of Justinian shall have due honor and reign at the universities, but Homer and Virgil need not therefore be banished. We will cultivate the olive and the vine, but without eradicating the myrtle and the rose.

We must have books for recreation and entertainment, as well as books for instruction and for business; the former are agreeable, the latter useful, and the human mind requires both. The canon law and the codes of Justinian shall have due honor and reign at the universities, but Homer and Virgil need not therefore be banished. We will cultivate the olive and the vine, but without eradicating the myrtle and the rose.
Balzac (identity unresolved)

In print by 1881 AD · industrial

Recorded in a printed collection by this date; the original date of these words is still unknown.

Meaning not yet available

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Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Balzac (identity unresolved)
Attribution: unknown
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
In print by 1881 AD · industrial
In print by 1881: recorded in Pearls of Thought (1881). Collection publication is an upper bound for this wording, not its earliest origin, composition date or the author's lifetime.
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken.
Recorded source
Pearls of Thought (1881) (1881 AD)

Page 186 · printed citation: Balzac · subject: Novels

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.