Larry Hostetler

“I would rather be an authority on myself than on Cicero.”
― Michel De Montaigne (1533-1592), The Essays: A Selection

“I would rather let affairs break their neck than twist my faith for the sake of them.”
― Michel de Montaigne

“If now a friend denies not what was given him in trust,
If he restores an ancient purse with all its coins and rust,
This prodigy of honesty deserves to be enrolled
In Tuscan books, and with a sacrificial lamb extolled.”
― Juvenal

“I loved reading but I loved books almost as much. Their look, their smell, their weight enshrined, to me, the worth that others found in religion, in bricks and mortar, even in relationships. A book could be friend, lover, family, priest, but more reliable than any of these. With books, one could wall off the world. In their shelter, a calm prevailed more profound than that of the stars or the sea.”
― John Baxter, 5 Nights in Paris