A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators.

Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one.

Libraries are not made, they grow.

The man who has a library of his own collection is able to contemplate himself objectively, and is justified in believing in his own existence.

A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators.

I am far too much in doubt about the present, far too perturbed .about the future, to be otherwise than profoundly reverential about the past.

History is a pageant and not a philosophy.