“Life is a foreign language; all men mispronounce it”

“Living in a bookshop is like living in a warehouse of explosives. Those shelves are ranked with the most furious combustibles in the world--the brains of men.”

“Mr. Gilbert had the earnest mania for self-improvement which has blighted the lives of so many young men.”

“When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue—you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humour and ships at sea by night—there’s all heaven and earth in a book, a real book I mean.”

“There are three ingredients to the good life; learning, earning, and yearning.”

“There is only one success-to be able to spend life in your own way.”

“All cities are mad: but the madness is gallant. All cities are beautiful, but the beauty is grim.”