“His hands were weak and shaking from carrying far too many books from the bookshop. It was the best feeling.”

“I shake his hand, and feel the jolt of electricity again from him. He laughs and raises his hand to show me the joy-buzzer in his palm.”

“Aziraphale collected books. If he were totally honest with himself he would have to have admitted that his bookshop was simply somewhere to store them. He was not unusual in this. In order to maintain his cover as a typical second-hand book seller, he used every means short of actual physical violence to prevent customers from making a purchase. Unpleasant damp smells, glowering looks, erratic opening hours - he was incredibly good at it.”

“With brief amusement, she recalled how she'd assumed a rogue of his decadent reputation would be pale and weak from too many late nights, too much brandy, and too many women. If that regime resulted in this superb specimen, every doctor in the country should recommend it.”

“It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.”

“It is a good plan to have a book with you in all places and at all times.Most likely you will carry it many a day and never give it a singlelook, but, even so, a book in the hand is always a companionablereminder of that happier world of fancy, which, alas! most of us canonly visit by playing truant from the real world. As some men wearboutonnieres, so a reader carries a book, and sometimes, when heis feeling the need of beauty, or the solace of a friend, he opens it,and finds both.”