“For me the greatest joy is to be able to submerge myself for a few hours every day in a human time that otherwise would be alien to me. A lifetime is not enough.”

“It is often much harder to get rid of books than to acquire them. They stick to us in that pact of need and oblivion we make with them, witnesses to a moment in our lives we will never see again. W...”

“It is often much harder to get rid of books than it is to acquire them. They stick to us in that pact of need and oblivion we make with them, witnesses to a moment in our lives we will never see ag...”

“In an established love of reading there is a policy of insurance guaranteeing certain happiness till death.”

“A fig for your precious society with its bridge parties, its inane chatter, its cheap mentality; its dances and vulgar banquets; its snobbery and cheap pretension. The humblest library can show you...”

“To build up a library is to create a life. It's never just a random collection of books.”

“I hold a theory that, sooner or later, if a man but live long enough, certain books destined for his peculiar delight will find him, however obscure they or he may be.”

“How many cities have revealed themselves to me in the marches I undertook in the pursuit of books!”

“Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. Walter Benjamin, "Unpacking My Library”