One man is as good as another until he has written a book.
—Benjamin Jowett (1817–93) British Theologian, Educator
Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Every book salesman is an advance agent for culture and for better citizenship, for education and for the spread of intelligence.
—Frank Hall Crane (1873–1948) American Stage and Film Actor, Director
A good title is the title of a successful book.
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) American Novelist
Man ceased to be an ape, vanquished the ape, on the day the first book was written.
—Yevgeny Zamyatin (1884–1937) Russian Novelist, Journalist
Books that you may carry to the fireside, and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.
—Frank Lane (1896–1981) American Sportsperson, Businessperson
The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall, nations perish, civilizations grow old and die out, and after an era of darkness new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men’s hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead.
—Clarence Day (1874–1935) American Author, Humorist
Always have a book at hand, in the parlor, on the table, for the family; a book of condensed thought and striking anecdote, of sound maxims and truthful apothegms. It will impress on your own mind a thousand valuable suggestions, and teach your children a thousand lessons of truth and duty. Such a book is a casket of jewels for your household.
—Tryon Edwards (1809–94) American Theologian, Author
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
In science read the newest works, in literature read the oldest.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
Somewhere, everywhere, now hidden, now apparent in what ever is written down, is the form of a human being. If we seek to know him, are we idly occupied?
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
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
My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
You must often make erasures if you mean to write what is worthy of being read a second time; and don’t labor for the admiration of the crowd, but be content with a few choice readers.
—Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 BCE) Roman Poet
Don’t just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
There is no Frigate like a book to take us lands away nor any coursers like a page of prancing Poetry.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
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
A house is no home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.
—Margaret Fuller (1810–50) American Feminist, Writer, Revolutionary
One must be an inventor to read well.—As the proverb says, “He that would bring home the wealth of the Indies must carry out the wealth of the Indies.”—There is creative reading as well as creative writing.—When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusion. Every sentence is doubly significant, and the sense of our author is as broad as the world.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
After three days without reading, talk becomes flavorless.
—Chinese Proverb
An empty book is like an infant’s soul, in which anything may be written. It is capable of all things, but containeth nothing. I have a mind to fill this with profitable wonders.
—Thomas Traherne (1636–74) English Metaphysical Poet, Mystic
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking makes what we read ours. So far as we apprehend and see the connection of ideas, so far it is ours; without that it is so much loose matter floating in our brain.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Who ever converses among old books will be hard to please among the new.
—William Temple (1881–1944) English Theologian, Archbishop
Then I though of reading—the nice and subtle happiness of reading … this joy not dulled by age, this polite and unpunishable vice, this selfish, serene, lifelong intoxication.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
A dose of poison can do its work but once. A bad book can go on poisoning minds for generations.
—William Hutchinson Murray (1913–92) American Mountaineer, Writer
He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men.
—John Aubrey (1626–97) English Antiquary, Biographer, Folklorist
Exceedingly well read and profited in strange concealments.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
A book worth reading is worth buying.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
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