“It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.”

Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go.

The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.

The devil’s agents may be of flesh and blood, may they not?

To a great mind, nothing is little.

Critics kind never mind! Critics flatter no matter! Critics blame all the same! Do your best damn the rest!

His Ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge.

As a rule, the more bizarre a thing is, the less mysterious it proves to be.

A dog reflects the family life.

Some people’s affability is more deadly than the violence of coarser souls.

No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.

The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.

Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell.

For strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination.

I dislike my fellow-mortals. Justice compels me to add that they appear for the most part to dislike me.

You know, we love stories and we love narrative; we love to get lost in an author’s world.

Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Who says Television isn’t educational, as soon as the T.V. comes on I read a book.

You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.

You chose books, I chose looks . Now see the difference?

You want to remember that while you’re judging the book, the book is also judging you.

When you’re old enough to write a book for children, by then you’ll have become a grown up and have lost all your jokeyness. Unless you’re an undeveloped adult and still have an enormous amount of childishness in you.