“Books aren't lumps of paper, but minds on shelves.”

“Books are not lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on shelves!”

“These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice... and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space, and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart.”

“As the hours crept by, the afternoon sunlight bleached all the books on the shelves to pale, gilded versions of themselves and warmed the paper and ink inside the covers so that the smell of unread words hung in the air.”

“One always has a better book in one's mind than one can manage to get onto paper.”

“Your mind is a cupboard and you stock the shelves.”