Book lovers will understand me, and they will know too that part of the pleasure of a library lies in read more

Book lovers will understand me, and they will know too that part of the pleasure of a library lies in its very existence

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves.

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves.

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.

My test of a good novel is dreading to begin the last chapter.

But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books,
exempted from the wrong of time, and capable read more

But the images of men's wits and knowledges remain in books,
exempted from the wrong of time, and capable of perpetual
renovation.

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as read more

The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts.

If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would read more

If a law were passed giving six months to every writer of a first book, only the good ones would do it.

We get no good
By being ungenerous, even to a book,
And calculating profits--so much help
read more

We get no good
By being ungenerous, even to a book,
And calculating profits--so much help
By so much reading. It is rather when
We gloriously forget ourselves, and plunge
Soul-forward, headlong, into a book's profound,
Impassioned for its beauty, and salt of truth--
'Tis then we get the right good from a book.