Page:Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers.djvu/394

385 From the hour of the invention of printing, books, and not kings, were to rule the world. Weapons forged in the mind, keen-edged, and brighter than a sunbeam, were to supplant the sword and battle-axe. Books! lighthouses built on the sea of time! Books! by whose sorcery the whole pageantry of the world's history moves in solemn procession before our eyes. From their pages great souls look down in all their grandeur, undimmed by the faults and follies of earthly existence, consecrated by time. —.

Be less concerned about the number of books you read, and more about the good use you make of them. The best of books is the Bible. —.

The great standard of literature as to purity and exactness of style is the Bible. —.

Thou mayest as well expect to grow stronger by always eating, as wiser by always reading. —.

It is right for you, young men, to enrich yourselves with the spoils of all pure literature; but he who would make a favorite of a bad book, simply because it contains a few beautiful passages, might as well caress the hand of an assassin because of the jewelry which sparkles on his fingers. —.

Love's secret is to be always doing things for God, and not to mind because they are such little ones. —.