Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.
In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them.
Wicked people never have time for reading. It's one of the reasons for their wickedness.
Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.
We're all human, aren't we? Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving.
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.
I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in life. And I am horribly limited.
Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it.
Books are a uniquely portable magic.