Books are humanity in print.

Confronted by menace, or what is perceived as menace, governments will usually attempt to smash it, rarely to examine it, understand it, define it.

The story and study of the past, both recent and distant, will not reveal the future, but it flashes beacon lights along the way and it is a useful nostrum against despair.

To be a bestseller is not necessarily a measure of quality, but it is a measure of communication.

Vainglory, however, no matter how much medieval Christianity insisted it was a sin, is a motor of mankind, no more eradicable than sex.

When people don't have an objective, there's much less dynamic effort, and that makes life a lot less interesting.

Books are the carriers of civilization... Books are humanity in print.