[Ads-l] Quote Origin: The world is a book, and those who don=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99t_?=travel read only one page.

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The popular saying about travel in the subject line is usually
credited to St. Augustine of Hippo, but researchers have been unable
to find a supporting citation. A travel companion recently asked me to
trace this saying. The earliest match I found appeared in the 1670
book "The Voyage of Italy: or A Compleat Journey through Italy" by
English travel writer and tutor Richard Lassels. The preface contained
the following passage:

[Begin excerpt]
… the Profit of Travelling; it’s certain, that if this world be a
great book, as S. Augustine calls it, none study this great Book so
much as the Traveler. They that never stir from home, read only one
page of this Book; and like the dull fellow in Pliny, who could never
learn to count farther than five, they dwell alwayes upon one Lesson.

They are like an acquaintance of mine, who had alwayes a book indeed
lying open upon a Desk; but it was observed that it lay alwayes open
at one and the same place, and by long custome, could lye open no
where else.
[End excerpt]

Richard Lassels credited Saint Augustine with the metaphorical notion
that the world is a book. However, I believe that Lassels deserves
credit for the full statement which equates staying in one place to
reading a single page of this world book. I conjecture that later
readers misread the passage above and incorrectly attributed the full
statement to Saint Augustine.

One of Augustine's letters did describe the world as a book. The text
below shows Augustine’s statement in Latin followed by a translation
in English:

[Begin excerpt]
Major liber noster orbis terrarum est: in eo lego completum, quod in
libro Dei lego promissum.

Our greater book is the world; in it I read fulfilled what in the book
of God I read promised.
[End excerpt]

Here is a link to the Quote Investigator article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2025/09/25/world-book/

Earlier citations, interesting material, and feedback would be welcome.
Garson

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