“A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum.”

“Lending a favorite book has its risks; the borrower may not like it. I still don’t know a better novel than Crime and Punishment—still, every fourth or fifth borrower returns it unfinished: it depresses him; besides that, he didn’t believe it. More borrowers than this return the first volume of Remembrance of Things Past unfinished: they were bored. There is no book you can lend people that all of them will like.”

“The less money lying idle the greater is the dividend.”

“Knowledge is like money: To be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.”

“She loved the smell of books, the feel of books, the look of them on the shelf.”

“My wealth is my shelf of books!”

“Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them.”

“What are a friend's books for if not to be borrowed?”

“Holy borrowing bibliophile, let's book!”

“Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me.”