One can live with the thought of one's own death. It is the thought of the death of the words read more

One can live with the thought of one's own death. It is the thought of the death of the words and books that is terrifying for that is the deeper extinction.

Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image, but thee who destroys a goode booke, kills reason it read more

Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God's image, but thee who destroys a goode booke, kills reason it selfe.

Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in read more

Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in my father's name;
Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out
Among the giant fossils of my past,
Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs
Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there
At this or that box, pulling through the gap,
In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy,
The first book first. And how I felt it beat
Under my pillow, in the morning's dark,
An hour before the sun would let me read!
My books!
At last, because the time was ripe,
I chanced upon the poets.

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all

Books are the blessed chloroform of the mind.

Books are the blessed chloroform of the mind.

Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading read more

Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.

If a book is really good, it deserves to be read again, and if it's great, it should be read read more

If a book is really good, it deserves to be read again, and if it's great, it should be read at least three times.

It is easier to buy books than to read them, and easier to read them than to absorb them.

It is easier to buy books than to read them, and easier to read them than to absorb them.

The Wise
(Minstrel or Sage,) out of their books are clay;
But in their books, as from read more

The Wise
(Minstrel or Sage,) out of their books are clay;
But in their books, as from their graves they rise.
Angels--that, side by side, upon our way,
Walk with and warn us!