Given Pounds and five years, and an ordinary man can in the ordinary course, without any undue haste or putting any pressure upon his taste, surround himself with books, all in his own language, and thence forward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.
Books Quotes
One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.
But, as with eros itself, we find books under attack. We live in a country in which the activity of solitary reading, with its need for leisure and calm, has diminished to the vanishing point. And, worse still, there are theories reigning in the land which tell us that books can have no permanent meanings […]
The oldest books are only just out to those who have not read them.
The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency – the belief that the here and now is all there is.
‘Tis pleasant, sure, to see one’s name in print; A book’s a book, although there’s nothing’ in ‘t.
(Returning to lecture at Cornell University after 20 years, Bloom was faced with a student banner – a bedsheet unfurled that read “Great Sex is better than Great Books.”) “Sure,” retorts Bloom, “but you can’t have one without the other.”
I read books like mad, but I am careful not to let anything I read influence me.
Filling a bookcase is like gathering a social circle.
Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books that were written because authors couldn’t find anyone to talk to.
