“We want splendid books ... books that prove to us that love is at work in the world next to evil, right up against it, at times indistinctly, and that it always will be ...”

“We believe in books. Somehow we want to make childhood better, and we believe that a book given at the right moment can work magic in a child's life.”

“We are always looking for the book it is necessary to read next.”

“Our books will bear witness for or against us, our books reflect who we are and who we have been, our books hold the share of pages granted to us from the Book of Life. By the books we call ours we will be judged”

“Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills us. Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Besides, in this random miscellaneous company we may rub against some complete stranger who will, with luck, turn into the best friend we have in the world.”

“Truly we work and live on a streetful of splendid people, whom we are to love and serve even if they are uninterested in us!”