Literature is the effort of man to indemnify himself for the wrongs of his condition.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Literature is the expression of a feeling of deprivation, a recourse against a sense of something missing. But the contrary is also true: language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the meaningless noise and silence of nature and history.
—Octavio Paz (1914–98) Mexican Poet, Diplomat
There are some people who read too much: The bibliobibuli. I know some who are constantly drunk on books, as others are drunk on whiskey or religion. They wander through this most diverting and stimulating of worlds in a haze, seeing nothing and hearing nothing.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
If I might control the literature of the household, I would guarantee the well-being of the church and state.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.
—Salman Rushdie (b.1947) Indian-born British Novelist
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Let your literary compositions be kept from the public eye for nine years at least.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
The great critic must be a philosopher, for from philosophy he will learn serenity, impartiality, and the transitoriness of human things.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
The existence of good bad literature – the fact that one can be amused or excited or even moved by a book that one’s intellect simply refuses to take seriously – is a reminder that art is not the same thing as cerebration.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Speak of the moderns without contempt, and of the ancients without idolatry.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Anybody can write a three-volume novel. It merely requires a complete ignorance of both life and literature.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
How simple the writing of literature would be if it were only necessary to write in another way what has been well written. It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Literature flourishes best when it is half trade and half an art.
—William Motter Inge (1913–73) American Playwright, Novelist
Literature is made upon any occasion that a challenge is put to the legal apparatus by conscience in touch with humanity.
—Nelson Algren (1909–81) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
I wish I could write a beautiful book to break those hearts that are soon to cease to exist: a book of faith and small neat worlds and of people who live by the philosophies of popular songs.
—Indian Proverb
Literature is a comprehensive essence of the intellectual life of a nation.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
If you look at history you’ll find that no state has been so plagued by its rulers as when power has fallen into the hands of some dabbler in philosophy or literary addict.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
Leisure without literature is death and burial alive.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine—everybody drinks water.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Literature has now become a game in which the booksellers are the kings; the critics, the knaves; the public, the pack; and the poor author, the mere table or thing played upon.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
O, let my books be then the eloquence and dumb presages of my speaking breast.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A book is a mirror: If an ass peers into it, you can’t expect an apostle to look out.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
You know lots of criticism is written by characters who are very academic and think it is a sign you are worthless if you make jokes or kid or even clown. I wouldn’t kid Our Lord if he was on the cross. But I would attempt a joke with him if I ran into him chasing the money changers out of the temple.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
A country which has no national literature, or a literature too insignificant to force its way abroad, must always be, to its neighbors at least, in every important spiritual respect, an unknown and unestimated country.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
I doubt if anything learnt at school is of more value than great literature learnt by heart.
—Richard Livingstone (1880–1960) British Scholar, Educator, Academic
‘Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem to be confidences or sides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profound thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.
—Italo Calvino (1923–85) Italian Novelist, Essayist, Journalist
The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.
—Samuel Butler
The beaten paths of literature lead safeliest to the goal, and the talent pleases us most which submits to shine with new gracefulness through old forms.—Nor is the noblest and most peculiar mind too noble or peculiar for working by prescribed laws.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportional to their ability as writers. This is their main use.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
Literature is the orchestration of platitudes.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
It is from books that wise people derive consolation in the troubles of life.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
The reading or non-reading a book will never keep down a single petticoat.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose. The nineteenth century, as we know it, is largely an invention of Balzac.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can.
—Samuel Lover (1797–1868) Anglo-Irish Writer, Artist, Songwriter
Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The best effect of any book, is that it excites the reader to self-activity.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
All you can be sure about in a political-minded writer is that if his work should last you will have to skip the politics when you read it. Many of the so-called politically enlisted writers change their politics frequently. Perhaps it can be respected as a form of the pursuit of happiness.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
The atmosphere of orthodoxy is always damaging to prose, and above all it is completely ruinous to the novel, the most anarchical of all forms of literature.
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
It is in literature that the concrete outlook of humanity receives its expression
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in, you can’t expect an angel to look out.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one’s family and friends; and lastly, the solid cash.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
When we read of human beings behaving in certain ways, with the approval of the author, who gives his benediction to this behavior by his attitude towards the result of the behavior arranged by himself, we can be influenced towards behaving in the same way.
—T. S. Eliot (1888–1965) American-born British Poet, Dramatist, Literary Critic
It is the story-teller’s task to elicit sympathy and a measure of understanding for those who lie outside the boundaries of State approval.
—Graham Greene (1904–91) British Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer