And what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.
As with stomachs, we should pity minds that do not eat.
A visitor is a friend, he brings news, good or bad, which is bread to the hungry minds in lonely places. A real friend who comes to the house is a heavenly messenger, who brings the panis angelorum.
Food for the body is not enough. There must be food for the soul.
Food for the mind is like food for the body: the inputs are never the same as the outputs.
I can't exist without books.
You can't eat hope,' the woman said. You can't eat it, but it sustains you,' the colonel replied.
Belief is as necessary to the soul as pleasures are necessary to the body.
I am living on hope and faith ... a pretty good diet when the mind will receive them.
Bet you never eat, he says. Bet you drink up the oxygen like it's butter. Bet you can go for days on nothing but thoughts.
Intellectual food is like any other; it is pleasanter and more beneficial to take it with a spoon than a shovel.
You can't eat books, sweetheart.
[B]ut he had lived in a world in which, as he said, no one who loved ideas need hunger mentally.
At least let us have healthy books.
