"I learn more from the anatomy of an ant or a blade of grass...than from all the books which have been written since the beginning of time. This is so, since I have begun...to read the book of God...the model according to which I correct the human books which have been copied badly and arbitrarily and without attention to the things that are written in the original book of the Universe."

"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'"

"If a book come from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and authorcraft are of small amount to that."

"All that Mankind has done, thought, gained or been it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of Books. They are the chosen possession of men."

"In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time; the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream."

"The true University of these days is a collection of Books."

"Putting the right book in the right kid’s hands is kind of like giving that kid superpowers. Because one book leads to the next book and the next book and the next book and that is how a world-view grows. That is how you nourish thought."

"There is no book so bad," said the bachelor, "but something good may be found in it."

"God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They give to all, who will faithfully use them, the society, the spiritual presence of the best and greatest of our race."

"For out of olde feldes, as men seith, Cometh al this newe corn fro yeer to yere; And out of olde bokes, in good feith, Cometh al this newe science that men lere."

"There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person."

"There is a great deal of difference between the eager man who wants to read a book, and the tired man who wants a book to read."

"There is an undeniable correlation between functional illiteracy, poverty, and crime—in fact, eleven states predict their future need for prison cells based on the reading levels of their fourth graders. Books can change lives, yes, and so can the lack of them."

"Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them."

"Observe reader your old books, for they are the fountains out of which these resolutions issue."

"Books cannot always please, however good; Minds are not ever craving for their food."

"I sometimes think there is nothing so lovely as an artistically-designed book."

"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age."

"The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; and, after an era of darkness, new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again, and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men’s hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead. And even the books that do not last long, penetrate their own times at least, sailing farther than Ulysses even dreamed of, like ships on the seas. It is the author’s part to call into being their cargoes and passengers,—living thoughts and rich bales of study and jeweled ideas. And as for the publishers, it is they who build the fleet, plan the voyage, and sail on, facing wreck, till they find every possible harbor that will value their burden."

"Whatever we read from intense curiosity gives us a model of how we should always read."

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and at the bottom of the Spanish Main... and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life."

"The book is one of the springs of creative individualism, that individualism which, in these uncertain times, remains the guardian angel of human society. For five hundred years the book has been, for the solitary mind, an incomparable instrument of uplift and liberation."

"Books are the friends of solitude. They develop individuality and freedom. In solitary reading a man who is seeking himself has some chance of finding himself."

"And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh."

"Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry."

"There are magic moments, involving great physical fatigue and intense motor excitement, that produce visions of people known in the past. As I learned later from the delightful little book of the Abbé de Bucquoy, there are also visions of books as yet unwritten."

"The Bible is the most widely purchased, most thoroughly revered, and probably most broadly misunderstood book in the history of human civilization."

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers."

"Don't judge a book by its cover."

"Never read any book that is not a year old."

"'Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakenly meant for his ear."

"In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity."

"Books may look like nothing more than words on a page, but they are actually an infinitely complex imaginotransference technology that translates odd, inky squiggles into pictures inside your head."

"HOW TO READ A BOOK 1. READ IT 2. CHANGE A LOT 3. REREAD IT"

"That place that does contain My books, the best companions, is to me A glorious court, where hourly I converse With the old sages and philosophers; And sometimes, for variety, I confer With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels."

"Long books, when read, are usually overpraised, because the reader wants to convince others and himself that he has not wasted his time."

"Ivy had always cherished books for the stillness they allowed in a world that valued fast, unforgiving progress regardless of the human expense; there was a magical link between words on the page and the vivid images that simultaneously unfolded in her mind."

"No one disputes the fine points of natural beauty—waterfall, wildflower—but books of any sort are sustained less through universal acclamation than through the excited, often contradictory, exchanges of their readers."

"Learning hath gained most by those books by which the Printers have lost."

"Some Books are onely cursorily to be tasted of."

"Reading anything less than 50 years old is like drinking new wine: permissible once or twice a year and usually followed by regret and a headache."

"Books are only what we want them to be; rather, what we read into them."

"... the notion that everybody has at least one good book in him is misleading. To draw out from one's own interior the material for a book, and to objectify it as a book, requires more literary skill than is given to most of us, and more courage than is discoverable in the whole history of indiscretion."

"Gone are the days of highlighting books featuring two dads or, as astonishing as it is to think about, the simple controversy of breaking out definitions of gay, bisexual, and transgender in a glossary. Now kids get dozens of sex and “gender” options to choose from, including queer, genderqueer, sapphic, panromantic, and two-spirit. They also get a new term to designate anyone who isn’t queer, “allocishet,” which the “Read With Pride” guide defines as, “people whose gender and sexuality are privileged by society.”"

"Books are the greatest and the most satisfactory of recreations. I mean the use of books for pleasure. Without books, without having acquired the power of reading for pleasure, none of us can be independent, but if we can read we have a sure defence against boredom in solitude."

"Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas."

"What are my books but one plea against " man's inhumanity to man "—to woman—and to the lower animals?"

"This book is just right-- // I'm reading by flashlight deep into the night // Deliciously thirsty to see how it ends. // Books are such mind-thrilling // spine-tingling friends."