“Our dreams take us into other worlds, alternative realities that help us make sense of day-to-day realities.”

“Like dreaming, reading performs the prodigious task of carrying us off to other worlds. But reading is not dreaming because books, unlike dreams, are subject to our will: they envelop us in alternative realities only because we give them explicit permission to do so. Books are the dreams we would most like to have, and, like dreams, they have the power to change consciousness, turning sadness to laughter and anxious introspection to the relaxed contemplation of some other time and place.”

“Some books make us dream, others bring us face to face with reality, but what matters most to the author is the honesty with which a book is written.”

“A good education helps us make sense of the world and find our way in it”

“Common sense tells us that the things of the earth exist only a little, and that true reality is only in dreams.”

“Modern reality has got such a hold on us that... when we attempt to reconstruct the ancient days in our thoughts...the minor events of our lives tear us away from our meditations, and... thrust us back into our personal [problems]”