Quotes About Books and Reading

Posted by Melissa Howard Aug 23, 2007

Poetic Quotes

When you are old and gray and full of sleep, and nodding by the fire, take down this book and slowly read, and dream of the soft look your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep. William Butler Yeats

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. Dr. Seuss

Funny Quotes

Some people read because they cannot think for themselves. Cinderella’s stepmother played Anjelica Huston in the movie Ever After

Never judge a book by its movie. J.W. Eagan

Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me. Anatole France

A good book is always on tap; it may be decanted and drunk a hundred times, and it is still there for further imbibement. Holbrook Jackson

Books as People

A book is like a man - clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun. John Steinbeck

Books, those undemanding but faithful friends. Victor Hugo

If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We read to know we are not alone. C.S. Lewis

It is in our lives, and not from our words, that our religion must be read. Thomas Jefferson

I love to lose myself in other men's minds.... Books think for me. Charles Lamb

Books For Learning

... the habit of reading ... produces dignity of manners. Victor Hugo

He who reads, thinks; he who thinks, reasons. Victor Hugo

To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. Victor Hugo

A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read. Mark Twain a.k.a. Samuel Langhorne Clemens

A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy. Edward P. Morgan

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all. Abraham Lincoln

Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled "This could change your life." Helen Exley

Books as Escape

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul. Joyce Carol Oates

There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and a tired man who wants a book to read. G.K. Chesterton

These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice... and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space, and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart. Gilbert Highet

Books as Furniture and Architecture

A house without books is like a room without windows. Heinrich Mann

I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. Anna Quindlen

Rereading Books

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde

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 Cliff Fadiman

Some Parting Thoughts on Books

There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book; books are well written or badly written. Oscar Wilde

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Francis Bacon