“Books are the best of things, well used; abused, among the worst...They are for nothing but to inspire.”

“Books are for nothing but to inspire”

“It is remarkable, the character of the pleasure we derive from the best books.”

“Why covet a knowledge of new facts? Day and night, house and garden, a few books, a few actions, serve us as well as would all trades and all spectacles. We are far from having exhausted the significance of the few symbols we use. We can come to use them yet with a terrible simplicity.”

“Books are the best type of influence of the past...Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. The books of an older period will not fit this.”

“Outside, among your fellows, among strangers, you must perceive appearances, a hundred things you cannot do; but inside, the terrible freedom!”

“What would be the use of immortality to a person who cannot use well half an hour?”