How well he is read to reason against reading.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
It is from books that wise people derive consolation in the troubles of life.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
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
All my good reading, you might say, was done in the toilet. There are passages in Ulysses which can be read only in the toilet—if one wants to extract the full flavor of their content.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
A classic is a book which people praise and don’t read.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Reading serves for delight, for ornament, for ability.—The crafty contemn it; the simple admire it; the wise use it.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Books succeed, and lives fail.
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–61) English Poet
What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
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
The books that everybody admires are those that nobody reads.
—Anatole France (1844–1924) French Novelist
Reading the Scriptures is an uplifting experience.
—Indian Proverb
I suppose every old scholar has had the experience of reading something in a book which was significant to him, but which he could never find again. Sure he is that he read it there, but no one else ever read it, nor can he find it again, though he buy the book and ransack every page.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Deep versed in books, but shallow in himself.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
A book might be written on the injustice of the just.
—Anthony Hope (1863–1933) English Novelist, Playwright
When the book comes out it may hurt you—but in order for me to do it, it had to hurt me first. I can only tell you about yourself as much as I can face about myself.
—James Baldwin (1924–87) American Novelist, Social Critic
Imprint the beauties of authors upon your imagination, and their good morals upon your heart.
—Charles Simmons (1924–2017) American Editor, Novelist
Read as you taste fruit or savor wine, or enjoy friendship, love or life.
—Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Publisher
It is very well worthwhile to be tormented for two or three years of one’s life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
We should be as careful of the books we read, as of the company we keep. The dead very often have more power than the living.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
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
It does not follow because many books are written by persons born in America that there exists an American literature. Books which imitate or represent the thoughts and life of Europe do not constitute an American literature. Before such can exist, an original idea must animate this nation and fresh currents of life must call into life fresh thoughts along the shore.
—Margaret Fuller (1810–50) American Feminist, Writer, Revolutionary
For books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay, they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them. I know they are as lively, and as vigorously productive, as those fabulous dragon’s teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
Reading is seeing by proxy.
—Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) English Polymath, Philosopher, Sociologist, Political Theorist
We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of four or five hundred pages.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The love of reading enables a man to exchange the wearisome hours of life, which come to everyone, for hours of delight.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
A page digested is better than a volume hurriedly read.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
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
The books one reads in childhood, and perhaps most of all the bad and good bad books, create in one’s mind a sort of false map of the world, a series of fabulous countries into which one can retreat at odd moments throughout the rest of life…
—George Orwell (1903–50) English Novelist, Journalist
To talk in public, to think in solitude, to read and to hear, to inquire and answer inquiries, is the business of the scholar.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
Books and marriage go ill together.
—Moliere (1622–73) French 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
The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
A big leather-bound volume makes an ideal razor strap. A thin book is useful to stick under a table with a broken caster to steady it. A large, flat atlas can be used to cover a window with a broken pane. And a thick, old-fashioned heavy book with a clasp is the finest thing in the world to throw at a noisy cat.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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
Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures.
—Jessamyn West
A successful book cannot afford to be more than ten percent new.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
The only advice, indeed, that one person can give another about reading is to take no advice, to follow your own instincts, to use your own reason, to come to your own conclusions. If this is agreed between us, then I feel at liberty to put forward a few ideas and suggestions because you will not allow them to fetter that independence which is the most important quality that a reader can possess. After all, what laws can be laid down about books? The battle of Waterloo was certainly fought on a certain day; but is Hamlet a better play than Lear? Nobody can say. Each must decide that question for himself. To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. Everywhere else we may be bound by laws and conventions-there we have none.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
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
How can you dare teach a man to read until you’ve taught him everything else first?
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
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
The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
It is chiefly through books that we enjoy intercourse with superior minds, and these invaluable means of communication are in the reach of all. In the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
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
If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot…reading is the creative center of a writer’s life…you cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.
—Stephen King (b.1947) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Screenwriter, Columnist, Film Director
To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him, and travel in his company.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
A room without books is like a body without a soul.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
The book salesman should be honored because he brings to our attention, as a rule, the very books we need most and neglect most.
—Frank Hall Crane (1873–1948) American Stage and Film Actor, Director
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