With one day’s reading a man may have the key in his hands.
—Ezra Pound (1885-1972) American Poet, Translator, Critic
A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Reading should be in proportion to thinking, and thinking in proportion to reading.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A room without books is like a body without a soul.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called
—Carl Sagan (1934–96) American Astronomer
As well almost kill a man, as kill a good book; for the life of the one is but a few short years, while that of the other may be for ages.—Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself; kills as it were, the image of God.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
The mortality of all inanimate things is terrible to me, but that of books most of all.
—William Dean Howells (1837–1920) American Novelist, Critic
We ought to reverence books; to look on them as useful and mighty things.—If they are good and true, whether they are about religion, politics, farming, trade, law, or medicine, they are the message of Christ, the maker of all things—the teacher of all truth.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
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
Early in the morning, at break of day, in all the freshness and dawn of one’s strength, to read a book—I call that vicious!
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
A novel points out that the world consists entirely of exceptions.
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957) English Novelist, Artist
One of the amusements of idleness is reading without the fatigue of close attention, and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied but to be read.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
A good title is the title of a successful book.
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist
All the best stories in the world are but one story in reality—the story of escape. It is the only thing which interests us all and at all times, how to escape.
—A. C. Benson (1862–1925) English Essayist, Poet, Academic
A truly good book teaches me better than to read it. I must soon lay it down, and commence living on its hint. What I began by reading, I must finish by acting.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
To sit alone in the lamplight with a book spread out before you, and hold intimate converse with men of unseen generations—such is a pleasure beyond compare.
—Yoshida Kenko (1283–1352) Japanese Poet, Essayist
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
She could give herself up to the written word as naturally as a good dancer to music or a fine swimmer to water. The only difficulty was that after finishing the last sentence she was left with a feeling at once hollow and uncomfortably full. Exactly like indigestion.
—Jean Rhys (1890–1979) British Novelist, Short-story Writer
Does there, I wonder, exist a being who has read all, or approximately all, that the person of average culture is supposed to have read, and that not to have read is a social sin? If such a being does exist, surely he is an old, a very old man.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist, Playwright, Critic
I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.
—Isaac Asimov (1920–92) Russian-born American Writer, Scientist
O, let my books be then the eloquence and dumb presages of my speaking breast.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
—Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American Philosopher, Educator
The pleasure of reading without application is a dangerous pleasure. Useless books we should lay aside, and make all possible good use of those from which we may reap some fruit.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
Morality is the herd-instinct in the individual.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
A book worth reading is worth buying.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Books and proverbs receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.
—William Temple (1881–1944) British Clergyman, Theologian
The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian