A house without books is like a room without windows. – Heinrich Mann
From my point of view, a book is a literary prescription put up for the benefit of someone who needs it. – S.M. Crothers
He fed his spirit with the bread of books. – Edwin Markham
Through all of my youth these books were my companions, and now, as I write these lines, after sixty years, they still look down upon me with their old friendliness. – James L. Whitney, “Reminiscences of an Old Librarian,” November 1909
Bread of flour is good; but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a good book. – John Ruskin
One cannot celebrate books sufficiently. After saying his best, still something better remains to be spoken in their praise. – A. Bronson Alcott, “Books,” June 1869
Most books, like their authors, are born to die; of only a few books can it be said that death hath no dominion over them; they live, and their influence lives forever. – J. Swartz
A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counsellor, a multitude of counsellors. – Henry Ward Beecher
There is reading, and there is reading. Reading as a means to an end, for information, to cultivate oneself; reading as an end in itself, a process, a compulsion. – Sven Birkerts (b.1951), “Notes from a Confession,” The Agni Review, No.22 (1985)
Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes. – John LeCarre
Never judge a book by its movie. – J.W. Eagan
Titles of Books.—Decoys to catch purchasers. – Paul Chatfield
The literary man must needs be a thinking one, and every day he lives he becomes wiser—if wiser, then better—if better, then happier. – Charles Lanman, “Thoughts on Literature,” 1840
Far more seemly were it for thee to have thy study full of books, than thy purse full of money. – John Lyly
The wise man reads both books and life itself. – Lin Yutang
When a new book is published, read an old one. – Samuel Rogers
Borrowers of books — those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes. – Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia, "The Two Races of Men," 1822
He who lends a book is an idiot. He who returns the book is more of an idiot. – Arabic proverb
The mere brute pleasure of reading — the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing. – Lord Chesterfield
An ordinary man can… surround himself with two thousand books… and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy. – Augustine Birrell
