Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.
—Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German Poet, Writer
The sight of books removes sorrows from the heart.
—African Proverb
A book is a gift you can open again and again.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests; just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Borrowed wives, like borrowed books, are seldom returned.
—U.S. Proverb
Scholars talk books, butchers talk pigs.
—Chinese Proverb
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
It is better to be entirely without a book than to believe it entirely.
—Chinese Proverb
Books open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can.
—William Feather (1889–1981) American Publisher, Author
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Anyone who says they have only one life to live must not know how to read a book.
—Unknown
Master books, but do not let them master you.—Read to live, not live to read.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is worth a month’s study of books.
—Chinese Proverb
Every book must be chewed to get out its juice.
—Chinese Proverb
My Book and Heart Must never part.
—Unknown
Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
A great book should leave you with many experiences and slightly exhausted at the end. You should live several lives while reading it.
—William Styron (1925–2006) American Novelist, Essayist, Writer
A book is like a garden carried in the pocket.
—Arabic Proverb
A classic is a book which people praise and don’t read.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
A good book praises itself.
—German Proverb
You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.
—Paul Sweeney
Beware of a man of one book.
—English Proverb
People get nothing out of books but what they bring to them.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
There’s no thief like a bad book.
—Italian Proverb
Books and friends should be few but good.
—Common Proverb
Years know more than books.
—U.S. Proverb
A pack of cards is the devil’s prayer book.
—German Proverb