On Books
As meat is to the body, such is reading to the soul. To be at leisure without books is another Hell, & to be buried alive.
Robert Burton
The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.
Samuel Butler
The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything.
Bagehot
A book is a mirror: if an ass peers into it, you can't expect an apostle to look out.
There can hardly be a stranger commodity in the world than books. Printed by people who don't understand them; sold by people who don't understand them; bound, criticized and read by people who don't understand them; and now even written by people who don't understand them.
Lichtenberg
A classic is something that everyone wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
Mark Twain
It takes the publishing industry so long to produce books it's no wonder so many are posthumous.
Teressa Skelton