Quantity and quality

 I have come across three quotations about books that seem somehow connected. What do you think?

"Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book." — Stephanie Mallarme

"A word after a word after a word is power." — Margaret Atwood

"Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day." — Voltaire

What the three statements have most in common would appear to be abundance: "Everything in the world" ... "word after word after word" ... "the enormous quantity of books." If everything in the world can end up in a book, you are certain to have an enormous quantity of books consisting of word after word after word.

The first comment is clearly overstatement. The reason for existence is not really to end up as a book. Yet clearly everything has the potential to eventually find its way into a book. That "enormous quantity of books" are not all about the same thing. Almost anyone and almost anything can wind up in a book. Even I have been mentioned in a book.

The Atwood and Voltaire comments, however, bring quality into the picture, not just quantity. One word after another may translate into power, but only for those who know how to put those words to best advantage, sort of in the way both Atwood and Voltaire did.

As the latter tells us, relatively few people actually read. And surprisingly few people actually listen. Thus most words have little power at all.