"The Importance of Reading"

The reading of good books is one of the most helpful ways in which young people can develop themselves. One of the saddest mistakes I made in years gone by was utter neglect of reading. I now realize what I have missed by not having read and studied more. 

... [I]t is a spendid thing to make money, but it is a greater thing to make a good way of life. If [you] will devote some time each day to reading the best books [you] can find [you] will derive a lasting benefit throughout [your] lives. 

--J.C. Penney, Lines of a Layman (1956)