死读书的人只记住一些词藻和事物之皮毛，完全没有消化之，充斥着头脑，空虚着心灵。如果能充分利用书本，你就会有一种前所未有的感觉，觉得自己是有所作为的人。
Perhaps no other thing has such power to lift the poor out of his poverty, the wretched out of his misery, to make the burden-bearer forget his burden, the sick his suffering, as books. They are friends to the lonely, companions to the deserted, joy to the joyless, hope to the hopeless, good cheer to the disheartened, a helper to the helpless. They bring light into darkness, and sunshine into shadow.
也许只有书籍能让穷人脱贫，让可怜的人摆脱苦楚，让心怀重负的人释怀，让生病的人脱离痛苦。当你孤独时书是朋友，当你被抛弃时书是伴侣，当你无趣时书是快乐，当你灰心时书是希望，当你气馁时书是鼓励，当你无助时书是救世主。书籍把光明撒入黑暗，把阳光照进阴影。
We may be poor, socially ostracized, shut out from all personal association with the great and the good, and yet be in the best society in the world, in books.
也许是因为贫穷，我们受到排斥，被上流社会拒之门外，然而，我们依然身处世间最好的圈子里，这个圈子就是书籍。
The trend of many a life for good or ill, for success or failure, has been determined by a single book. The books which we read early in life are those which influence us the most.
早年阅读的书籍对我们一生影响甚大，或成功，或失败，或从善，或从恶，一个人的一生也许就取决于小小的一本书。
The greatest advantage of books does not always come from what we remember of them, but from their suggestiveness. A good book often serves as a match to light the dormant -powder within us.
读书的益处不是从书本中记住某些东西，而是从书本中得到启发。只要我们能挖掘出来，大多数人内部蕴藏着足够的潜能，一本好书就是点燃内部潜能的火柴。
There is explosive material enough in most of us if we can only reach it. A good book or a good friend often excites thought in great writers, even upon entirely different subjects. We often find in books what we thought and felt, we could have expressed ourselves. Indeed, we get acquainted with ourselves in books. We discover one feature in Emerson, another lineament in Shakespeare, an expression in Homer, a glimpse of ourselves in Dante, and so on until we spell out our whole individuality. True, we get many pleasing reflections of ourselves from fiends, many mirrored deformities from our enemies and a characteristic here and there from the world; but in calm and unbiased way we find the most of ourselves, our strength, our weakness, our limitations, our opinions, our tastes, our harmonies and discords, our poetic and prosaic qualities, in books.
即便在不同的主题中，一本好书或者说一位好友都能与伟大的作家激起相思之火花。我们曾经有过而从未表达出来的相思与感受都可以在书本中找到。的确，我们只有多读书，才能更好地认识自我。在爱默生，莎翁的作品中我们可以找到自己的角色，在荷马史诗中可以找到自我表达，在但丁的画作里可以看到自己的身影，只有多读书我们才能全面地认识自己。诚然，在朋友身上可以找到我们的优点，在敌人面前可以发现自己的缺陷，我们周围的世界里处处都有各种品质。以平和不带偏见的眼光，全面地看待自己，看我们的强项，看我们的短板，看我们的局限，看我们的态度，看我们的品味，看我们的认同与分歧，看我们的优雅与朴实。
We form many of our opinions from our favorite books. The author whom we prefer is our most potent teacher; we look at the world through his eyes. If we habitually read books that are elevating in tone, pure in style, sound in reasoning, and keen in insight, our minds develop the same characteristics. The best books are those which stir us up most and make us the most determined to do something and be something ourselves.
当我们偏好于某一类书籍，把作者奉为我们深信的导师，以他们的眼光看世界，从而形成我们对世事的看法。当阅读成为习惯，经常阅读基调向上，风格淳朴，说理有据，有洞察力的书籍，我们的头脑也会内生出同样的品质。有的书能深深触动我们的内心，让我们朝着某个方向去成为一个什么样的人，这类书才是最好的书。
Libraries are no longer a luxury, but a necessity. A home without books and periodical sand newspapers is like a house without windows. Children learn to read by being in the midst of books; they unconsciously absorb knowledge by handling them. No family can now afford to be without good reading. "No entertainment is so cheap as reading", says Mary Worley Montagu, "nor any pleasure so lasting." Good books elevate the character, purify the taste, take the attractiveness out of low pleasures, and lift us upon a higher plane of thinking and living.
上图书馆已不再是一件奢侈的事，而是必须的。没有书籍或报刊的屋子就如一座没有窗户的房子。书堆里的孩子学会了阅读，在阅读中孩子们无形中吸收了知识。没有接触不到好书的家庭，只有不好好读书的一家人。玛丽.沃特菜.蒙塔格说过："读书是最便宜，而且得到的快乐也是最持久的一种娱乐方式。"好的书籍能鼓舞精神，提升品味，使人脱离低级趣味，使人的相思和生活都得到提升。
Whatever you read, read with enthusiasm, with energy, read with the whole mind, if you would increase your mental stature. Learn to absorb the mental and the moral life of a book, and assimilate it into your life. He is the best reader who consumes the most knowledge and converts it into character. Mechanical readers remember words, the husks of things, but digest nothing. They cram their brains but starve their minds. If you are getting the most out of a book, you will feel a capacity for doing things which you never felt before.
无论读什么书，只有全神贯注地，聚精会神地，带着热情去读，才能真正提高我们的相思境界。学会把从书本中吸收的伦理道德与精神相思转化到自己的生活中去，能把知识充分消化并转化成自己品质的读者才是最好的读者。死读书的人只记住一些词藻和事物之皮毛，完全没有消化之，充斥着头脑，空虚着心灵。如果能充分利用书本，你就会有一种前所未有的感觉，觉得自己是有所作为的人。