From Journey to the center of the Earth:
page 33: "... foreigners have their own libraries, and our first consideration is, that our humbler classes should be highly educated. Fortunately, the love of study is innate in [certain] people."
I like this quote, because "the love of study" is an attribute I would love my posterity to have. It's much easier to play than it is to study, and it's much easier to love play than study. The love of learning and the love of books / reading are practically in my mind the same thing - provided that we learn from the books we read. There are other books from which we don't learn, but are merely entertained.
This leads to another thought that I often talk about with my parents. Being a producer vs. being a consumer. If you think about your day, how many times have you been a consumer of goods compared with the number of times you've been a producer? I think the answer to that question is a good reflection of whether we value production or consumption. Children often inadvertently learn these behaviors from their parents.
