Good literature continually read for pleasure must, let us hope, do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.
—A. E. Housman (1859–1936) English Poet, Classical Scholar
Reading makes a full man, meditation a profound man, discourse a clear man.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.
—Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American Philosopher, Educator
Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The bookful blockhead ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head,
With his own tongue still edifies his ears,
And always list’ning to himself appears.
All books he reads, and all he reads assails.
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744) English Poet
When I take up a book I have read before I know what to expect; and the satisfaction is not lessened by being anticipated, I shake hands with and look the old tried and valued friend in the face, compare notes, and chat the hour away.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
We must form our minds by reading deep rather than wide.
—Quintilian (c.35–c.100 CE) Roman Rhetorician, Literary Critic
Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable.
—Augustine Birrell (1850–1933) English Politician, Essayist
A bibliophile of little means is likely to suffer often. Books don’t slip from his hands but fly past him through the air, high as birds, high as prices.
—Pablo Neruda (1904–73) Chilean Poet, Diplomat, Political leader
The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.
—Rene Descartes (1596–1650) French Mathematician, Philosopher
The time to read is any time: no apparatus, no appointment of time and place, is necessary. It is the only art which can be practiced at any hour of the day or night, whenever the time and inclination comes, that is your time for reading; in joy or sorrow, health or illness.
—Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Publisher
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
It is from books that wise people derive consolation in the troubles of life.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just.
—Anita Brookner (1928–2016) English Novelist, Art Historian
Readers are plentiful: thinkers are rare.
—Harriet Martineau (1802–76) English Sociologist, Economist, Essayist, Philosopher
I would sooner read a timetable or a catalog than nothing at all. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
A novel points out that the world consists entirely of exceptions.
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957) English Novelist, Artist
Books are fatal: they are the curse of the human race. Nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense. The greatest misfortune that ever befell man was the invention of printing.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The most foolish kind of a book is a kind of leaky boat on the sea of wisdom; some of the wisdom will get in anyhow.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
A person of mature years and ripe development, who is expecting nothing from literature but the corroboration and renewal of past ideas, may find satisfaction in a lucidity so complete as to occasion no imaginative excitement, but young and ambitious students are not content with it. They seek the excitement because they are capable of the growth that it accompanies.
—Charles Cooley (1864–1929) American Sociologist
I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.
—George Gissing (1857–1903) English Novelist
Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.
—John Wesley (1703–91) British Methodist Religious Leader, Preacher, Theologian
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry.
—Gaston Bachelard (1884–1962) French Philosopher, Psychoanalyst, Poet
Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary. We must not permit anything to stand between us and the book that could change our lives.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
Never read a book through merely because you have begun it.
—John Witherspoon (1723-94) Scottish-American Presbyterian Theologian
Thy books should, like thy friends, not many be, yet such wherein men may thy judgment see.
—William Wycherley (c.1640–1716) English Dramatist
What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it.
—Anthony Burgess (1917–93) English Novelist, Critic, Composer
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.
—Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689–1762) English Aristocrat, Poet, Novelist, Writer
One may as well be asleep as to read for anything but to improve his mind and morals, and regulate his conduct.
—Laurence Sterne (1713–68) Irish Anglican Novelist, Clergyman
Read not books alone, but men, and amongst them chiefly thyself.—If thou find anything questionable there, use the commentary of a severe friend, rather than the gloss of a sweet-lipped flatterer; there is more profit in a distasteful truth than in deceitful sweetness.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
One sheds one’s sicknesses in books—repeats and presents again one’s emotions, to be master of them.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
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
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. They are engines of change, windows on the world, lighthouses erected in the sea of time.
—Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–86) American Literary Critic
Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.
—Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American Philosopher, Educator
The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.
—Henry James (1843–1916) American-born British Novelist, Writer
Readers are less and less seen as mere non-writers, the subhuman “other” or flawed derivative of the author; the lack of a pen is no longer a shameful mark of secondary status but a positively enabling space, just as within every writer can be seen to lurk, as a repressed but contaminating antithesis, a reader.
—Terry Eagleton
Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason: they made no such demand upon those who wrote them. Those works, therefore, are the most valuable, that set our thinking faculties in the fullest operation. understand them.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.
—Frank Lane (1896–1981) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Five daily newspapers arrive in my California driveway. The New York times and the Wall Street Journal are supplemented by three local papers. As for magazines, I read, or at least skim, Business Week, Forbes, The Economist, INC; Industry Week, Fortune. Other subscriptions include Sales and Marketing Management, Modern Health Care, Progressive Grocer, High Tech Business, and Slaon Management Review from MIT. I religiously read Business Tokyo, Asia Week, and Far Eastern Economic Review. I glance at Newsweek and Time … but I devour the New Republic, Policy Review, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Monthly, and Public Interest. How about books? A dozen or more each month.
—Tom Peters (b.1942) American Management Consultant, Author
Some of the most famous books are the least worth reading. Their fame was due to their having done something that needed to be doing in their day. The work is done and the virtue of the book has expired.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Political Leader, Writer, Editor, Journalist
There are four kinds of readers. The first is like the hour-glass; and their reading being as the sand, it runs in and runs out, and leaves not a vestige behind. A second is like the sponge, which imbibes everything, and returns it in nearly the same state, only a little dirtier. A third is like a jelly-bag, allowing all that is pure to pass away, and retaining only the refuse and dregs. And the fourth is like the slaves in the diamond mines of Golconda, who, casting aside all that is worthless, retain only pure gems.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
There were many dark moments when my faith in humanity was sorely tested, but I would not and could not give myself up to despair. That way lays defeat and death.
—Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) South African Political leader
A person who publishes a book appears willfully in public with his pants down.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American Poet, Playwright, Feminist
Everything you need for your better future and success has already been written. And guess what? It’s all available. All you have to do is go to the library.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
Only a generation of readers will span a generation of writers.
—Steven Spielberg (b.1946) American Film Director, Screenwriter, Film Producer, Businessperson
Books are masters who instruct us without rods or ferules, without words or anger, without bread or money. If you approach them, they are not asleep; if you seek them, they do not hide; if you blunder, they do not scold; if you are ignorant, they do not laugh at you.
—Richard de Bury
A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books You will be reading meanings.
—Harold S. Geneen (1910–1997) British-American Businessman
Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.
—Jean Rhys (1890–1979) British Novelist, Short-story Writer
Read an hour every day in your chosen field. This works out to about one book per week, 50 books per year, and will guarantee your success.
—Brian Tracy (b.1944) American Author, Motivational Speaker
When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
It was from my own early experience that I decided there was no use to which money could be applied so productive of good to boys and girls who have good within them and ability and ambition to develop it as the founding of a public library.
—Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919) Scottish-American Industrialist
When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.
—Clifton Fadiman (1904–99) American Author, Radio Personality
Americans will listen, but they do not care to read. War and Peace must wait for the leisure of retirement, which never really comes: meanwhile it helps to furnish the living room. Blockbusting fiction is bought as furniture. Unread, it maintains its value. Read, it looks like money wasted. Cunningly, Americans know that books contain a person, and they want the person, not the book.
—Anthony Burgess (1917–93) English Novelist, Critic, Composer
Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.
—Stephane Mallarme (1842–98) French Symbolist Poet
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.
What gunpowder did for war, the printing press has done for the mind; the statesman is no longer clad in the steel of special education, but every reading man is his judge.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Read, read, read. Read everything—trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it is good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out the window.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
You will, I am sure, agree with me that… if page 534 only finds us in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
The average person cannot over-read without peril of mental plethora, any more than he can overfeed with impunity. Literary dissipation is as weakening in its effects as dissipation of any other kind.
—Henry Clay Trumbull (1830–1903) American Army Chaplain, Evangelist
Beware of the person of one book.
—Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) Italian Catholic Priest, Philosopher, Theologian
Books to judicious compilers, are useful; to particular arts and professions, they are absolutely necessary; to men of real science, they are tools: but more are tools to them.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
That is a good book which is opened with expectation, and closed with delight and profit.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
A vacuum of ideas affects people differently than a vacuum of air, otherwise readers of books would be constantly collapsing.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
If I were to pray for a taste which should stand me under every variety of circumstances, and be a source of happiness and cheerfulness to me through life, and a shield against its ills, however things might go amiss and the world frown upon me, it would be a taste for reading. Give a man this taste, and the means of gratifying it and you can hardly fail of making him happy. You make him a denizen of all nations, a contemporary of all ages.
—John Herschel (1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist
A bad book is as much of a labor to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author’s soul.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
When a book raises your spirit, and inspires you with noble and manly thoughts, seek for no other test of its excellence. It is good, and made by a good workman.
—Jean de La Bruyere (1645–96) French Satiric Moralist, Author
A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.
—Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810–89) English Poet, Writer
The best effect of any book, is that it excites the reader to self-activity.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
A novel is never anything, but a philosophy put into images.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it is.
—J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish Novelist, Dramatist
A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story’s voice makes everything its own.
—John Berger (1926–2017) English Art Critic, Novelist
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
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
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, Author
He picked something valuable out of everything he read.
—Pliny the Elder (23–79) Roman Statesman, Scholar
Books are a guide in youth, and an entertainment for age. They support us under solitude, and keep us from becoming a burden to ourselves. They help us to forget the crossness of men and things, compose our cares and our passions, and lay our disappointments asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation.
—Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) Anglican Church Historian, Clergyman
There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.
—Isaac D’Israeli (1766–1848) English Writer, Scholar
One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it.
—E. M. Forster (1879–1970) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Essayist
Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
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
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
—Harper Lee (1926–2016) American Novelist
Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to what our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
The newest books are those that never grow old.
—Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Publisher
From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled professional readers and story-tellers could interpret. Then people like you would have to go to public halls and pay good prices to hear the professionals decode and read the books aloud for you. This plan would have the advantage of scaring off all amateur authors, retired politicians, country doctors and I-Married-a-Midget writers who would not have the patience to learn the secret language.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
Books worth reading once are worth reading twice; and what is most important of all, the masterpieces of literature are worth reading a thousand times.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Political Leader, Writer, Editor, Journalist
The good of a book lies in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs, which in their turn speak of things. Without an eye to read them, a book contains signs that produce no concepts; therefore it is dumb.
—Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian Novelist
The first time I read an excellent work, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend; and when I read over a book I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Who ever converses among old books will be hard to please among the new.
—William Temple (1881–1944) British Clergyman, Theologian
The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other, you will find what is needful for you in a book.
—George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish Novelist, Lecturer, Poet
Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Read as you taste fruit or savor wine, or enjoy friendship, love or life.
—Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Publisher
Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
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
Man’s mind stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
The poet can only write the poems; it takes the reader to complete the meaning.
—Nikki Giovanni (b.1943) American Poet, Writer, Activist, Educator
In a real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read. It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.
—S. I. Hayakawa (1906–92) Canadian-born American Academic, Elected Rep, Politician
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
A man ought to read just as his inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
Most books, like their authors, are born to die; of only a few books can it be said that death hath no dominion over them; they live, and their influence lives forever.
—Unknown
A book is a part of life, a manifestation of life, just as much as a tree or a horse or a star. It obeys its own rhythms, its own laws, whether it be a novel, a play, or a diary. The deep, hidden rhythm of life is always there, that of the pulse, the heart beat.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
Readers are not sheep, and not every pen tempts them.
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977) Russian-born American Novelist
There is a gentle, but perfectly irresistible coercion in a habit of reading well directed, over the whole tenor of a man’s character and conduct, which is not the least effectual because it works insensibly and because it is really the last thing he dreams of.
—John Herschel (1792–1871) English Mathematician, Astronomer, Chemist
The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade.
—Anthony Trollope (1815–82) English Novelist
All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and the afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and places and how the weather was.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, 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 always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.
—Walt Disney (1901–66) American Entrepreneur
Leibnitz has obtained this fruit from his great reading, that he has a mind better exercised for receiving all sorts of ideas, more susceptible of all forms, more accessible to that which is new and even opposed to him, more indulgent to human weakness, more disposed to favorable interpretations, and more industrious to find them.
—Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757) French Essayist, Polymath, Philosopher
An ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.
—Augustine Birrell (1850–1933) English Politician, Essayist
Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future.
—Jim Bishop (1907–87) American Journalist, Author
This habit of reading … is your pass to the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for his creatures. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.
—Anthony Trollope (1815–82) English Novelist
Read, read, search, and refine your appetite; learn to live upon instruction; feast your mind and mortify your flesh. — Read and take your nourishment in all your eyes; shut up your mouth, and chew the cud of understanding.
—William Congreve (1670–1729) English Playwright, Poet