Quotes

best. In consequence, the overall trajectory of farm yields was relentlessly downward. Corn harvests in upstate New York went from thirty bushels an acre

In 1985, Malcolm Forbes, the American publisher, paid $156,450 for a bottle of Château Lafite 1787. This made it much too valuable to drink,

however. He had been born in modest circumstances—his father was a diemaker in Sheffield—and was entirely self-taught. He became the leading authority in Britain

So the idea of a park built by a city for the free use of all its citizenry, whatever their station in life, was

In passing, one linguistic curiosity is worth noting. As nouns, upstairs and downstairs are surprisingly recent additions to the language. Upstairs isn’t recorded in

Today the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with more than 115 million books and related items. Unfortunately, Jefferson’s part

Jefferson loved books and was very lucky to live in a generation when books were becoming commonplace. Until comparatively recently books had been really

Pietro della Gondola, who in 1524, aged not quite sixteen, arrived in Vicenza from his native Padua. There he befriended an influential aristocrat, Giangiorgio

By 1851, books for reading were widely affordable, but books for show remained expensive, Bryson, Bill. At Home (p. 407). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

Today lead paint is banned almost everywhere except for certain very specific applications,* but it is much missed by conservators because it gave a