Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone you may s... - Mark Twain

"A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razorstrap. A thing book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat."

"Any emotion, if it is sincere, is involuntary."

"Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life."

"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure."

"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."