A man may be judged by his library.—Bentham.
I ever look upon a library with the reverence of a temple.—Evelyn, to Wotton.
'Father, I should like to learn to make gold.' 'And what would'st thou do if thou could'st make it?' 'Why, I would build a great house and fill it with books.'—Southey, Doctor.
What would you have more? A wife? That is none of the indispensable requisites of life. Books? That is one of them, and I have more than I can use.—David Hume, Burton's 'Life.'
Talk of the happiness of getting a great prize in the lottery! What is that to opening a box of books? The joy upon lifting up the cover must be something like that which we shall feel when Peter the porter opens the door upstairs, and says, 'Please to walk in, Sir.'—Southey, Life.
I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.—Macaulay.
Our books ... do not our hearts hug them, and quiet themselves in them even more than in God?—Baxter's Saint's Rest.
It is our duty to live among books.—Newman, Tracts for the Times, No. 2.
What lovely things books are!—Buckle, Life by Huth.
(Query) Whether the collected wisdom of all ages and nations be not found in books?—Berkeley, Querist.