“My early and invincible love of reading--I would not exchange for the treasures of India.”

—  Edward Gibbon

Last update Jan. 17, 2026. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "My early and invincible love of reading--I would not exchange for the treasures of India." by Edward Gibbon?
Edward Gibbon photo
Edward Gibbon43
English historian and Member of Parliament 1737–1794

Related quotes

Kamal Haasan photo

“I had to read it out to my sister, who was witness to my early dark days, when my mother was afraid what would happen to me. But, I knew I couldn't read without choking up, so I asked Gautami to read it out for me.”

Kamal Haasan (1954) Indian actor

About the letters from Balachander, in “His Master's voice 1 September 2010”

Rick Santorum photo

“Early in my political career, I had an opportunity to read the speech and I almost threw up. You should read the speech.”

Rick Santorum (1958) American politician

at College of St. Mary Magdalen,
on John F. Kennedy's speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association

Philip Sidney photo

“My true love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange, one for the other given.”

Philip Sidney (1554–1586) English diplomat

"My true love hath my heart, and I have his".

Mark Twain photo

“Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Max Müller, India: What Can India Teach Us? (1883), p. 15 http://books.google.com/books?id=pIVDAAAAYAAJ&amp;pg=PA15&amp;dq=%22most+valuable+and+most+instructive+materials+in+the+history+of+man+are+treasured+up+in+India%22 <br class="br">Misattributed

Alice Sebold photo

“You look invincible,' my mother said one night.
I loved these times, when we seemed to feel the same thing. I turned to her, wrapped in my thin gown, and said:
I am.”

Alice Sebold book The Lovely Bones

Source: The Lovely Bones

Harper Lee photo

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”

Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird

Pt. 1, ch. 2
Jean Louise (Scout) Finch
Variant: I never loved reading until I feared I would lose it. One does not love breathing.
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)

“Thought impregnated with love becomes invincible. (Charles Haanel)”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Bal Gangadhar Tilak photo

“Love of India was the breath of life with Mr. Tilak and in it he has left to us a treasure, which can only increase, by use. The endless procession of yesterday shows the hold the great patriot had on the masses.”

Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856–1920) Indian independence activist

Mahatma Gandhi, Selected Letters: Gandhi -Tilak Correspondence, 29 November 2013, MK Gandhi organization http://www.mkgandhi.org/Selected%20Letters/gandhi-tilakcorr.htm,

Gabriel García Márquez photo

“… the invincible power that has moved the world is unrequited, not happy love”

Gabriel García Márquez book Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Variant: I became aware that the invincible power that has moved the world is unrequited, not happy, love.
Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores

Wendy Doniger photo

“My mother had rubbings from the temple at Angkor Watt on the walls-that was the first thing that interested me. But it really began when I was in my teens, when my mother gave me a copy of A Passage to India. I really came into it from literature-only later did I turn to religious literature. I read Rumer Godden's Mooltiki, and other stories and poems of India (1957) and I read Kipling's Jungle Books. Then I read the Upanishads, and it was just so fascinating to me. I was raised by atheist and communist parents, so we had no religion whatsoever.”

Wendy Doniger (1940) American Indologist

About her first introduction to India.
Q&A with Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor and author of The Hindus

Related topics