“No entertainment is so cheap as reading，” says Mary Wortley Montagu； “nor any pleasure so lasting.” Good books elevate the character， purify the taste， take the attractiveness out of low pleasures， and lift us upon a higher plane of thinking and living. It is not easy to be mean directly after reading a noble and inspiring book. The conversation of a man who reads for improvement or pleasure will be f？lavored by his reading； but it will not be about his reading.
Whatever you read， read with enthusiasm， with energy， read with the whole mind， if you would increase your mental stature， learn to absorb the mental and the moral life of a book， and assimilate it into your life. He is the best reader who consumes the most knowledge and converts it into character. Mechanical readers remember words， the husks of things， but digest nothing. They cram their brains but starve their minds. If you are getting the most out of a book， you will feel a capacity for doing things which you never felt before.
“書籍是年輕人的向導，老年人的消遣。它幫助我們排解孤寂，擺脫精神負擔。”
——傑裏米·柯裏爾
“世間唯一真正平等待人的是書籍，唯一開放的來者不拒的寶庫是圖書館。”
——蘭格弗博士
也許世間沒有任何事物的力量可與書籍匹敵：它使窮人擺脫貧困，使悲慘者脫離苦海，使負荷者無視沉重，使病人忘卻痛苦，使傷心的人拋開憂愁，使受壓迫者忘掉屈辱。書籍是孤獨者的朋友，被遺棄者的伴侶，無趣者的歡樂，絕望者的希冀，沮喪者的興奮劑，無助者的幫手。它們給黑暗帶來光明，給陰影帶來絢爛。
我們可能卑微，被社會遺忘，沒有機會與那些大人物和上流人士交往。但是，在書中——這個世界上最美好的社會——我們可以住在宮殿，同王子交談，熟悉所有王室成員，始終與最偉大、最高尚的人往來。