"Of all the things which man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful, and worthy are the things we call books."
"All that mankind has done, thought, gained, and been, is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books."
Channing, Dr. Wm. E. "God be thanked for books! They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. They give to all who will faithfully use them the society, the spiritual presence, of the best and greatest of our race. No matter how poor I am; no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling: if the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof,—if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise; and Shakspeare, to open to me the worlds of imagination and the workings of the human heart; and Franklin, to enrich me with his practical wisdom,—I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man, though excluded from what is called the best society in the place where I live."
Chaucer.
"And as for me, though that I know but lyte[5]
On bokès for to rede I me delyte,
And to them give I (feyth[6]) and ful credence,
And in myn herte have them in reverence
So hertily that there is pastime noon,[7]
That from my bokès maketh me to goon
But yt be seldom on the holy day,
Save, certeynly, whan that the monethe of May
Is comen, and I here the foulès synge,
And that the flourès gynnen for to sprynge;
Farewell my boke, and my devocioun."
[5] Little.
[6] Faith.
[7] None.
Cicero. "Studies are the aliment of youth, the comfort of old age, an adornment of prosperity, a refuge and a solace in adversity, and a delight in our home."
Clarke, James Freeman. "When I consider what some books have done for the world, and what they are doing,—how they keep up our hope, awaken new courage and faith, give an ideal life to those whose homes are hard and cold, bind together distant ages and foreign lands, create new worlds of beauty, bring down truths from Heaven,—I give eternal blessings for this gift, and pray that we may use it aright, and abuse it not."