“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”

“In old days books were written by men of letters and read by the public. Nowadays books are written by the public and read by nobody.”

“One hardly knew at times whether one was reading the spiritual ecstasies of some mediaeval saint or the morbid confessions of a modern sinner. It was a poisonous book.”

“I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.”

“I never read a book I must review; it prejudices you so.”

“He seems to read nothing but my books, and says his one desire is to 'follow in my footsteps'! But I have told him that they lead to terrible places.”

“Oh! it is absurd to have a hard-and-fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read.”