(49 quotes found)
“A library represents the mind of its collector, his fancies and foibles, his strength and weakness, his prejudices and preferences. Particularly is this the case if, to the character of a collector, he adds -- or tries to add -- the qualities of a student who wishes to know the books and the lives of the men who wrote them. The friendships of his life, the phases of his growth, the vagaries of his mind, all are represented.”
William Osler
“To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.”
Robertson Davies
“Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and miss.”
Lazarus Long
“There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist - the taxidermist leaves the hide.”
Mortimer Caplin
“There are one-story intellects, two-story intellects, and three-story intellects with skylights. All fact collectors with no aim beyond their facts are one-story men. Two-story men compare reason and generalize, using labors of the fact collectors”
Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Of course, I started as a collector. A true collector. I can remember as if it were only yesterday the heart- pounding excitement as I spread out upon the floor of my bedroom The Edward G. Robinson Collection of Rare Cigar Bands. I didn't play at collecting. No cigar anywhere was safe from me. My father and uncles and all their friends turned their lungs black trying to satisfy my collector's zeal. And then came cigarette cards, big-league baseball players. I was an insatiable fiend, and would cheerfully trade you three Indian Joes for one of that upstart newcomer, Ty Cobb.”
Edward G. Robinson
“Paperbacks blink in and out of print like fireflies. They also, as older collectors have ruefully discovered, fade and fall apart even more rapidly than their owners.”
Paul Gray
“The results reflect a strong, solid and successful market - there were some very high prices but participating collectors remain focused and controlled.”
Christopher Burge
“He was a noble collector whose name is indelibly linked to this masterpiece.”
Chen Xiejun
“I have no distributor... it is indicative to me that there are these pockets of players and collectors all over. You should see the correspondence I get from over the world letting me know how significant they think I am. I know that wherever I go, I am well received.”
Bill Dixon
