A poet's soul must contain the perfect shape of all things good, wise and just. His body must be spotless and without blemish, his life pure, his tho….

There are no habits of man more alien to the doctrine of the Communist than those of the collector.

Is this true or only clever?.

Few men can afford to be angry..

It is the Mass the matters..

The man who has a library of his own collection is able to contemplate himself objectively, and is justified in believing in his own existence..

[Milton] calls the university "A stony-hearted step-mother.".

There were no books in Eden, and there will be none in heaven.

Any ordinary man can...surround himself with two thousand books...and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to b….

History is a pageant and not a philosophy..

The true historian, therefore, seeking to compose a true picture of the thing acted, must collect facts and combine facts. Methods will differ, style….

It is the Mass that matters..

A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in ….

I am far too much in doubt about the present, far too perturbed .about the future, to be otherwise than profoundly reverential about the past..

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….

Poetry should be vital--either stirring our blood by its divine movements or snatching our breath by its divine perfection. To do both is supreme glo….

Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes the heart warm..

A great library easily begets affection, which may deepen into love..

Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one..

Personally, I am dead against the burning of books..

Libraries are not made, they grow..