Without books we should very likely be a still-primitive people living in the shadow of traditions that faded with years until only a blur remained, … - Louis L'Amour

There are tides in the affairs of men, tides of restlessness and awareness; there are thin threads of thought that reach out across the distance and, like the threads of a weaver, are drawn together tight.

Today you can buy the Dialogues of Plato for less than you would spend on a fifth of whiskey, or Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for the price of a cheap shirt. You can buy a fair beginning of an education in any bookstore with a good stock of paperback books for less than you would spend on a week's supply of gasoline.

One thing has always been true: That book or that person who can give me an idea or a new slant on an old idea is my friend.