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
Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American Novelist, Playwright
Buy good books, and read them; the best books are the commonest, and the last editions are always the best, if the editors are not blockheads.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
By reading, we enjoy the dead; by conversation, the living; and by contemplation, ourselves. Reading enriches the memory; conversation polishes the wit; and contemplation improves the judgment. Of these, reading is the most important, as it furnishes both the others.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
To read too many books is harmful.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
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
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
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
Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The good parts of a book may be only something a writer is lucky enough to overhear or it may be the wreck of his whole damn life—and one is as good as the other.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.
—Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand-born British Author
‘Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem to be confidences or sides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profound thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent; whence must necessarily arise a desire of attaining knowledge with the greatest possible ease.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Thou mayest as well expect to grow stronger by always eating, as wiser by always reading. Too much overcharges Nature, and turns more into disease than nourishment. ‘Tis thought and digestion which make books serviceable, and give health and vigor to the mind.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
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
Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Except a living man. there is nothing more wonderful than a book! a message to us from the dead—from human souls we never saw, who lived, perhaps, thousands of miles away. And yet these, in those little sheets of paper, speak to us, arouse us, terrify us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
Few are sufficiently sensible of the importance of that economy in reading which selects, almost exclusively, the very first order of books. Why, except for some special reason, read an inferior book, at the very time you might be reading one of the highest order?
—John W. Foster
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
There are three classes of readers: some enjoy without judgment; others judge without enjoyment; and some there are who judge while they enjoy, and enjoy while they judge. The latter class reproduces the work of art on which it is engaged.—Its numbers are very small.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The book you don’t read won’t help.
—Jim Rohn (1930–2009) American Entrepreneur, Author, Motivational Speaker
I believe that today more than ever a book should be sought after even if it has only one great page in it: we must search for fragments, splinters, toenails, anything that has ore in it, anything that is capable of resuscitating the body and soul.
—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 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
A novel points out that the world consists entirely of exceptions.
—Joyce Cary (1888–1957) English Novelist, Artist
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
I wish I could write a beautiful book to break those hearts that are soon to cease to exist: a book of faith and small neat worlds and of people who live by the philosophies of popular songs.
—Indian Proverb
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
The constant habit of perusing devout books is so indispensable, that it has been termed the oil of the lamp of prayer. Too much reading, however, and too little meditation, may produce the effect of a lamp inverted; which is extinguished by the very excess of that ailment, whose property is to feed it.
—Hannah More