Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing institution — such call I good books. – Henry David Thoreau

We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of four or five hundred pages. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nothing is worth reading that does not require an alert mind. – Charles Dudley Warner

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