"There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love."
— Christopher Morley

"I've never known any trouble that an hour's reading didn't assuage"
— Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu

"Open the book. (The gilt rubs off the edges of the pages and pollinates the fingertips.)"
— Elizabeth Bishop

"Should he give free reign to his desires, the bibliomaniac can ruin his life along with the lives of his loved ones. He'll often take better care of his books than of his own health; he'll spend more on fiction than he does on food; he'll be more interested in his library than in his relationships, and, since few people are prepared to live in a place where every available surface is covered with piles of books, he'll often find himself alone, perhaps in the company of a neglected and malnourished at. When he dies, all but forgotten, his body might fester for days before a curious neighbor grows concerned about the smell."
— Mikita Brottman (The Solitary Vice: Against Reading)

"Until you opened it, the book was nothing that an untrained eye would look twice at."
— Geraldine Brooks