“God be thanked for books! they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages.”— w.e. channing Related Quotes “If we read, we shall renew our mind.”— Lailah Gifty Akita “For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.”— Marcus Tullius Cicero “The books—the generous friends who met me without suspicion—the merciful masters who never used me ill! The only years of my life that I can look back on with something like pride… Early and late, through the long winter nights and the quiet summer days, I drank at the fountain of knowledge, and never wearied of the draught.”— Wilkie Collins