Those who do not read are no better off than those who cannot read.

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.

The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything.

There was a time when the world acted on books; now books act on the world.

How long most people would look at the best book before they would give the price of a large turbot for it?

Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.

A book is a part of life, a manifestation of life, just as much as a tree or a horse or a star. It obeys its own rhythms, its own laws, whether it be a novel, a play, or a diary. The deep, hidden rhythm of life is always there, that of the pulse, the heart beat.

Old books, you know well, are books of the world's youth, and new books are the fruits of its age.

People are much more willing to lend you books than bookcases.