"Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them. And it's much cheaper to buy somebody a book than it is to buy them the whole world!"
— Neil Gaiman

"Love Jo all your days, if you choose, but don't let it spoil you, for it's wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can't have the one you want. (Amy March to Teddy Lawrence)"
— Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)

"Let me go: take back thy gift:
Why should a man desire in any way
To vary from the kindly race of men,
Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance
Where all should pause, as is most meet for all?
...Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears,
And make me tremble lest a saying learnt,
In days far-off, on that dark earth, be true?
‘The Gods themselves cannot recall their gifts.’
- Tithonus"
— Alfred Lord Tennyson

"'You and me-we've whored together. We've fought together.And I still dunna understand how ye always seems to know where the money is hidden and the liquor is stored and the scandals are richest.'
'It's a gift.'"
— Christina Dodd (Into The Shadow)

"Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not the merits of who receives them."
— Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Shadow of the Wind)

"But thy strong Hours indignant work’d their wills,
And beat me down and marr’d and wasted me,
And tho’ they could not end me, left me maim’d
To dwell in presence of immortal youth,
Immortal age beside immortal youth,
And all I was, in ashes.
- Tithonus"
— Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Thanks to my mother, not a single cardboard box has found its way back into society. We receive gifts in boxes from stores that went out of business twenty years ago."
— Erma Bombeck

"Hey, great idea: if you have kids, give your partner reading vouchers next Christmas. Each voucher entitles the bearer to two hours' reading time *while the kids are awake*. It might look like a cheapskate present, but parents will appreciate that it costs more in real terms than a Lamborghini."
— Nick Hornby (The Polysyllabic Spree)

"Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends,for it is one of God's best gifts."
— Thomas Hughes

"For so many centuries, the exchange of gifts has held us together. It has made it possible to bridge the abyss where language struggles."
— Barry Lopez (About This Life: Journeys on the Threshold of Memory)

"Story is a butterfly whose wings transport us to another world where we receive gifts that change who we are and who we want to be.
"
— Harley King

"Anybody who has had a great treasure has always led a precarious existence."
— John Wyndham (The Day of the Triffids)

"The manner of giving is worth more than the gift."
— Pierre Corneille

"In this city [Palermo] . . . it's the souls of the dead who bring presents to the children. . . . We go to the cemetery to ask the dead for toys."
— Gianni Riotta (Prince of the Clouds)

"Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind."
— William Shakespeare (Hamlet)