Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul. - Mark Twain

It's not as bad as it sounds.

... in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.

A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razorstrap. A thing book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat.