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

Nothing is more beautiful than a beautiful book. – Joseph Joubert (1754–1824), translated from French by George H. Calvert, 1

If the book is second-hand, I leave all its markings intact, the spoor of previous readers, fellow-travellers who have recorded their passage by means of scribbled comments, a name on the fly-leaf, a bus ticket to mark a certain page. – Alberto Manguel, The Library at Night