Chance will not do the work -
Chance sends the breeze;
But if the pilot slumber at the helm.
The very wind that wafts us towards the port
May dash us on the shelves.
The steersman's part is vigilance.
Blow it or rough or smooth. [ Sir Walter Scott ]

On the tawny sands and shelves trip the pert fairies and the dapper elves. [ Milton ]

The first thing naturally when one enters a scholar's study or library, is to look at his books. One gets the notion very speedily of his tastes and the range of his pursuits by a glance around his book-shelves. [ O. W. Holmes ]

What laborious days, what watchings by the midnight lamp, what rackings of the brain, what hopes and fears, what long lives of laborious study, are here sublimized into print, and condensed into the narrow compass of these surrounding shelves! [ Horace Smith ]