“A man's bookseller should keep his confidence, like his physician. What can become of a world where every man knows what another man reads? Why, sir, books would become like quacks' potions, with every mountebank in the newspapers claiming one volume's superiority over another.”
“Your body is full of rage. Every sinew. It is easy to read. You speak volumes with a clenched fist.”
“Every book, every volume that you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.”
“The man is in his work,read it if you want to know about him.”
“How pleasant to know Mr Lear!" / Who has written such volumes of stuff! / Some think him ill-tempered and queer / But a few think him pleasant enough.”