~Boasting.~--Usually the greatest boasters are the smallest workers. The
deep rivers pay a larger tribute to the sea than shallow brooks, and yet
empty themselves with less noise.--_W. Secker._

With all his tumid boasts, he's like the sword-fish, who only wears his
weapon in his mouth.--_Madden._

Every braggart shall be found an ass.--_Shakespeare._

Self-laudation abounds among the unpolished, but nothing can stamp a man
more sharply as ill-bred.--_Charles Buxton._

~Boldness.~--Who bravely dares must sometimes risk a fall.--_Smollett._

Women like brave men exceedingly, but audacious men still
more.--_Lemesles._

~Bondage.~--The iron chain and the silken cord, both equally are
bonds.--_Schiller._

~Books.~--If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's
private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how
many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the
reader!--_Thackeray._

When a new book comes out I read an old one.--_Rogers._

Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep; for your
habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the
latter.--_Paxton Hood._

Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the
reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high
art.--_Thoreau._

A book _is_ good company. It is full of conversation without loquacity.
It comes to your longing with full instruction, but pursues you never.
It is not offended at your absent-mindedness, nor jealous if you turn to
other pleasures. It silently serves the soul without recompense, not
even for the hire of love. And yet more noble,--it seems to pass from
itself, and to enter the memory, and to hover in a silvery
transfiguration there, until the outward book is but a body, and its
soul and spirit are flown to you, and possess your memory like a
spirit.--_Beecher._

If the crowns of all the kingdoms of Europe were laid down at my feet in
exchange for my books and my love of reading, I would spurn them
all.--_Fenelon._

We ought to regard books as we do sweetmeats, not wholly to aim at the
pleasantest, but chiefly to respect the wholesomest; not forbidding
either, but approving the latter most.--_Plutarch._

To buy books only because they were published by an eminent printer, is
much as if a man should buy clothes that did not fit him, only because
made by some famous tailor.--_Pope._

The medicine of