The possession of a great many things, even the best of things, tends to blind one to the real value of anything.

Education begins by teaching children to read and ends by making most of them hate reading.

History proves there is no better advertisement for a book than to condemn it for obscenity.

Why did Nature create man? Was it to show that she is big enough to make mistakes, or was it pure ignorance?

Great books conserve time.

A large, still book is a piece of quietness, succulent and nourishing in a noisy world, which I approach and imbibe with "a sort of greedy enjoyment," as Marcel Proust said of those rooms of his old home whose air was "saturated with the bouquet of silence."

The end of reading is not more books but more life.