"He was a genius - that is to say, a man who does superlatively and without obvious effort something that most people cannot do by the uttermost exertion of their abilities."

"A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight."

"There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity."

"The world is full of people whose notion of a satisfactory future is, in fact, a return to the idealised past."

"Tristan and Isolde were lucky to die when they did. They'd have been sick of all that rubbish in a year."

"Few people can see genius in someone who has offended them."

"Just the omission of Jane Austen's books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it."

"Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."

"Wear the old coat and buy the new book."

"Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered."

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book."