Butlers Notebooks 2

‘The Life of Books
Some writers think about the life of books as some savages think about the life of men – that there are books which never die. They all die sooner of later; but thet will not hinder an author from trying to give his book as long a life as he can get for it. The fact that it will have to die is no valid reason for letting it die sooner than can be helped.’

Samuel Butler, ‘The notebooks of Samuel Butler’. London, 1985 [1912], p. 106.