Of all the minor creatures of mythology, fairies are the most beautiful, the most numerous, the most memorable.

You can cover a great deal of country in books.

Young men, especially in America, write to me and ask me to recommend “a course of reading.” Distrust a course of reading! People who really care for books read all of them. There is no other course.

Politicians use statistics in the same way that a drunk uses lamp-postsfor support rather than illumination.

He missed an invaluable opportunity to hold his tongue.

O grant me a house by the beach of a bay, Where the waves can be surly in winter, and play With the sea-weed in summer, ye bountiful powers! And I'd leave all the hurry, the noise, and the fray, For a house full of books, and a garden of flowers.

Of all animals, he alone attains to the Contemplative Life.