“You should read books like you take medicine, by advice, and not by advertisement.”

“A book worth reading is worth owning.”

“If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.”

“Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.”

“To be taught to read—what is the use of that, if you know not whether what you read is false or true? To be taught to write or to speak—but what is the use of speaking, if you have nothing to say? To be taught to think—nay, what is the use of being able to think, if you have nothing to think of? But to be taught to see is to gain word and thought at once, and both true.”

“I should recommend...keeping...a small memorandum-book in the breast-pocket, with its well-cut sheathed pencil, ready for notes on passing opportunities, but never being without this.”

“I want to speak to you about the treasures hidden in books; and about the way we find them, and the way we lose them.”