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Quotes about Books

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, US poet (1807 - 1882)

Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.
- Mark Twain, US humorist, novelist, short story author, & wit (1835 - 1910)

In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, US essayist & poet (1803 - 1882)

It was a book to kill time for those who like it better dead.
- Dame Rose Macaulay, English novelist (1881 - 1958)

I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy.
- Frank Zappa, US musician, singer, & songwriter (1940 - 1993)

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, English dramatist & novelist (1874 - 1965)

Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book...
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of US 1953-1961 (1890 - 1969)

I read part of it all the way through.
- Samuel Goldwyn, US (Polish-born) movie producer (1882 - 1974)

This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book - it makes a very poor doorstop.
- Alfred Hitchcock, British movie director (1899 - 1980)

CP From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.
- Groucho Marx, US comedian with Marx Brothers (1890 - 1977)

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
- Groucho Marx, US comedian with Marx Brothers (1890 - 1977)

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
- Groucho Marx, US comedian with Marx Brothers (1890 - 1977)

Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
- P. J. O'Rourke, US humorist & political commentator (1947 - )

CP 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, English novelist (1775 - 1817)

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.
- Sir Francis Bacon, English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626)

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.
- Sir Francis Bacon, English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 - 1626)

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.
- Kathleen Norris

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.
- Voltaire, French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)

There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.
- Christopher Morley, US author & journalist (1890 - 1957)

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, US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.
- Henry David Thoreau, US Transcendentalist author (1817 - 1862)

When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.
- Michel de Montaigne, French essayist (1533 - 1592)

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.
- W. H. Auden, US (English-born) critic & poet (1907 - 1973)

A room without books is like a body without a soul.
- Cicero, Roman author, orator, & politician (106 BC - 43 BC)

Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.
- William Shakespeare, Greatest English dramatist & poet (1564 - 1616)

Learn as much by writing as by reading.
- Lord Acton

CP A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.
- G. K. Chesterton, English author & mystery novelist (1874 - 1936)

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.
- G. K. Chesterton, English author & mystery novelist (1874 - 1936)

Live always in the best company when you read.
- Sydney Smith, English essayist (1771 - 1845)

Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.
- Lenore Hershey

I've never known any trouble that an hour's reading didn't assuage.
- Charles De Secondat, French lawyer & political philosopher (1689 - 1755)

Books...are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.
- Dorothy L. Sayers, English mystery author (1893 - 1957)

Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand.
- Ezra Pound, US poet (1885 - 1972)

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.
- Charles Caleb Colton, (1780 - 1832)

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.
- Charles W. Eliot, US educator (1834 - 1926)

Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.
- Horace Mann, US educator (1796 - 1859)

CP This book fills a much-needed gap.
- Moses Hadas, (1900 - 1966)

To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.
- Robertson Davies

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.
- Robertson Davies

Reading this book is like waiting for the first shoe to drop.
- Ralph Novak

Never read a book through merely because you have begun it.
- John Witherspoon, US clergyman, educator, & politician (1723 - 1794)

Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.
- Paxton Hood

Wear the old coat and buy the new book.
- Austin Phelps

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, British (US -born) author (1843 - 1916)

There's a certain kind of conversation you have from time to time at parties in New York about a new book. The word "banal" sometimes rears its by-now banal head; you say "underedited," I say "derivative." The conversation goes around and around various literary criticisms, and by the time it moves on one thing is clear: No one read the book; we just read the reviews.
- Anna Quindlen, (1953 - )

Most new books are forgotten within a year, especially by those who borrow them.
- Evan Esar, American Humorist (1899 - 1995)

I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.
- Upton Sinclair, US novelist & socialist politician (1878 - 1968)

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
- Sir Richard Steele

Woe be to him that reads but one book.
- George Herbert, English clergyman & metaphysical poet (1593 - 1633)

Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought.
- Sir Arthur Helps

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.
- Salman Rushdie, British (Indian-born) author (1947 - )

Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.
- Harold Bloom, US author, critic, educator, & scholar (1930 - )

Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books.
- Bell Hooks, American critic and writer

Oh for a book and a shady nook...
- John Wilson, Scottish author (1785 - 1854)

You can cover a great deal of country in books.
- Andrew Lang, Scottish author & scholar (1844 - 1912)

When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it.
- Marie de Sevigne

Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
- Arnold Lobel