Book excerpt: A compilation drawn from over 500 years of English language accounting literature reflecting a lifetime of scholarly enquiry, this book comprises over 5000 quotations of between 1-20 lines in length. The book aims to give an historical perspective as well as an up-to-date overview of what accounting and accountants were, are and do, and is intended both as a reference book and a research tool. Its range extends from general interest to the advanced, covering rules, practices and standards, professional and academic opinions, and the social and logical foundations of accounting; it also draws on the work of scholars in other fields that have some bearing on accounting work and thought.