Thomas Huxley: Book $ vs Accountancy
on Friday, December 12, 2014Thomas Huxley Money Quotation saying to scientists books represent measurement, but to creatives they are as good as cash. Thomas Huxley said:
“Books are the money of literature, but only the counters of science” — Thomas Huxley
Thomas Huxley seems to be drawing a distinction between how literature and science are valued or represented. Specifically, he implies that for literature, books themselves are equivalent to money in their importance and function (“books are the money of literature”).
However, for science, books merely serve as placeholders or representations of ideas, like monetary coins, rather than embodying the core value (“only the counters of science”).
By this, Huxley appears to mean that literature finds its worth within published books, while the true worth of science lies in the discoveries, theories and expanding body of knowledge, of which books are just one means of transmission. Overall, the quote suggests Huxley viewed books as more integral to literature than to science, whose value resides in the ideas rather than their mode of publication.