There are many persons pretending to have a refined literary taste, who seldom read any books but those which are fashionable… – Charles Lanman, “Thoughts on Literature,” 1840

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

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. – Henry David Thoreau, Walden