Quotes about books
A collection of quotes on the topic of books, book, booking, reading.
Best quotes about books
“This book was written using 100% recycled words.”
Terry Pratchett book Wyrd Sisters
Source: Wyrd Sisters
“Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
“For every book you buy, you should buy the time to read it.”
Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer
“Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author
Letter to Oskar Pollak http://www.languagehat.com/archives/001062.php (27 January 1904)<br>Variant translations:<br>If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skulls, then why do we read it? Good God, we also would be happy if we had no books and such books that make us happy we could, if need be, write ourselves. What we must have are those books that come on us like ill fortune, like the death of one we love better than ourselves, like suicide. A book must be an ice axe to break the sea frozen inside us.<br>What we need are books that hit us like a most painful misfortune, like the death of someone we loved more than we love ourselves, that make us feel as though we had been banished to the woods, far from any human presence, like a suicide. A book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us.<br>A book should be an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us.<br>A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul.<br>A book should serve as the ax for the frozen sea within us. <br class="br">Variant: A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us. <br class="br">Context: I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for?... we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
Attributed to Cicero in J. M. Braude's Speaker's Desk Book of Quips, Quotes, & Anecdotes (Jaico Pub. House, 1966), p. 52. <br class="br">Dennis McHenry in a 2011 post at theCAMPVS.com http://thecampvs.com/2011/08/03/cicero-on-books-and-the-soul/ identified a source for the exact form of words in the essay "On the Pleasure of Reading" http://books.google.com/books?id=0YfQAAAAMAAJ&dq=cicero%20%22room%20without%20books%22%20%2B%22contemporary%20review%22&pg=PA240#v=onepage&q&f=false by Sir John Lubbock, published in The Contemporary Review, vol. 49 (1886) https://archive.org/details/contemporaryrev55unkngoog, pp. 240–51 https://archive.org/stream/contemporaryrev55unkngoog#page/n250/mode/2up, in which Lubbock wrote that "Cicero described a room without books as a body without a soul" (p. 241). The same sentence may also be found on p. 61 https://archive.org/stream/thepleasuresofli01lubbuoft#page/60/mode/2up of Lubbock's collection The Pleasures of Life. Part I. 18th edition (London and New York : Macmillan and Co. 1890) https://archive.org/details/thepleasuresofli01lubbuoft, in a lecture titled "A Song of Books". McHenry suggested that Lubbock may have had in mind the words "postea vero quam Tyrannio mihi libros disposuit mens addita videtur meis aedibus" at Cicero, Ad Atticum 4.8, which are translated by E. O. Winstedt on p. 293 https://archive.org/stream/letterstoatticus01ciceuoft#page/292/mode/2up of Cicero: Letters to Atticus I (London : William Heinemann, and New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons 1912) https://archive.org/details/letterstoatticus01ciceuoft "Since Tyrannio has arranged my books, the house seems to have acquired a soul", and by Evelyn Shuckburgh on p. 234 https://archive.org/stream/cu31924012541433#page/n283/mode/2up of The Letters of Cicero. Vol. I. B. C. 68–52 (London : George Bell and Sons 1908) https://archive.org/details/cu31924012541433 "Moreover, since Tyrannio has arranged my books for me, my house seems to have had a soul added to it" (although the Latin word " mens http://athirdway.com/glossa/?s=mens", rendered "soul" by both Winstedt and Shuckburgh, is more usually translated by the English "mind"). D. R. Shackleton Bailey in Cicero's Letters to Atticus (Harmondsworth : Penguin Books 1978), p. 162, translated "And now that Tyrannio has put my books straight, my house seems to have woken to life". <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: Ut conclave sine libris ita corpus sine anima" A room without books is like a body without a soul
“"Classic." A book which people praise and don't read.”
Mark Twain book Following the Equator
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. XXV
Following the Equator (1897)
“The love of books is among the choicest gifts of the gods.”
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author
“If you have enough book space, I don't want to talk to you.”
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Quotes about books
“We cannot be naive: the literature book will not solve poverty by itself”
José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor
Source: https://www.peruinforma.com/entrevista-cultural-al-escritor-chileno-jose-baroja/
José Baroja (1983) Chilean author and editor
Original source: Mucho se dice que los niños no leen. Bueno, yo diría que si los adultos no comienzan a hacerlo, no es justo acusar a los más pequeños de no leer. Ellos deben vernos con un libro entre las manos. <br class="br">Source: Trujillo, E. (2018). "Promover la lectura es una responsabilidad moral de los escritores: José Baroja". En Perú Informa. http://www.peruinforma.com/entrevista-cultural-al-escritor-chileno-jose-baroja/#:~:text=Hablar%20del%20escritor%20chileno%20Jos%C3%A9,en%20Letras%2C%20menci%C3%B3n%20en%20Literatura.. Consultado el 17 de junio de 2022.
“One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”
Malala Yousafzai (1997) Pakistani children's education activist
UN speech, June 2013
Context: So let us wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism, let us pick up our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution.
Alan Rickman (1946–2016) English film, television and stage actor
Interview: Alan Rickman on "Nobel Son" http://www.ifc.com/2008/12/alan-rickman-on-nobel-son by Aaron Hillis, IFC.com (4 December 2008)
Zayn Malik (1993) British singer
As himself talking about it being a yearbook, on 2017-05-10, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/nobodys-reached-out--zayn-maliks-best-quotes/zayn-malik-in-quotes3/
“The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul – BOOKS.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
Luca Pacioli book Summa de arithmetica
Summa de arithmetica, geometria. Proportioni et proportionalita (Venice 1494)
“The Word equals the book or, holy scripture. That is religion.”
Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author
“So many books, so little time.”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer
Charles C. Ryrie (1925–2016) Dispensationalist theologian
“This book had two authors, and they were both the same person.”
Terry Pratchett book A Hat Full of Sky
Author's note, revised edition (1992).
The Carpet People (1971; 1992)
Source: A Hat Full of Sky
Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness —
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
FitzGerald's first edition (1859)
A book, a woman, and a flask of wine:
The three make heaven for me; it may be thine
Is some sour place of singing cold and bare —
But then, I never said thy heaven was mine.
As translated by Richard Le Gallienne (1897)
Give me a flagon of red wine, a book of verses, a loaf of bread, and a little idleness. If with such store I might sit by thy dear side in some lonely place, I should deem myself happier than a king in his kingdom.
As translated by Justin McCarthy (1888).
The Rubaiyat (1120)
Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor
Acceptance speech for the 1970 Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Nation Award (16 January 1971), published in Elvis — Word for Word: What He Said, Exactly As He Said It (1999) by Jerry Osborne, p. 188
Context: I'd like to thank the Jaycees for electing me as one of their outstanding young men. When I was a child, ladies and gentlemen, I was a dreamer. I read comic books, and I was the hero of the comic book. I saw movies, and I was the hero in the movie. So every dream I ever dreamed, has come true a hundred times... And these gentlemen over here, these are the type of people who care, they're dedicated, and they realize that it is possible that they might be building the kingdom of heaven, it's not just too far fetched, from reality. I'd like to say that I learned very early in life that "Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain't got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend — without a song." So I keep singing a song. Goodnight. Thank you.
“The dictionary is the only book that's not required to reference anybody.”
Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author
“I wish it were as easy to buy time as it is to buy good books.”
Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author
“You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”
Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
“Books are a hard-bound drug with no danger of an overdose. I am the happy victim of books.”
Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer
“The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author
Letter to Ottoline Morrell (January 1922)
“I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.”
Orhan Pamuk book The New Life
Source: The New Life
“My favorite book is my next one. I’m always hoping to make my next book my best one.”
Mo Willems (1968) American children's illustrator and writer
“Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.”
Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher
Dante Alighieri book Inferno
Canto V, lines 127–138 (tr. Mandelbaum).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno
Bobby Fischer (1943–2008) American chess prodigy, chess player, and chess writer
1960s, Portrait of a Genius As a Young Chess Master (1961)
Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883) English poet and writer
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough,
A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse — and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness —
And Wilderness is Paradise enow.
FitzGerald's first edition (1859).
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) Genevan philosopher
Variant translation: Let the trumpet of the day of judgment sound when it will, I shall appear with this book in my hand before the Sovereign Judge, and cry with a loud voice, This is my work, there were my thoughts, and thus was I. I have freely told both the good and the bad, have hid nothing wicked, added nothing good.
Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1765-1770; published 1782), Book I
Context: Whenever the last trumpet shall sound, I will present myself before the sovereign judge with this book in my hand, and loudly proclaim, thus have I acted; these were my thoughts; such was I. With equal freedom and veracity have I related what was laudable or wicked, I have concealed no crimes, added no virtues; and if I have sometimes introduced superfluous ornament, it was merely to occupy a void occasioned by defect of memory: I may have supposed that certain, which I only knew to be probable, but have never asserted as truth, a conscious falsehood. Such as I was, I have declared myself; sometimes vile and despicable, at others, virtuous, generous and sublime; even as thou hast read my inmost soul: Power eternal! assemble round thy throne an innumerable throng of my fellow-mortals, let them listen to my confessions, let them blush at my depravity, let them tremble at my sufferings; let each in his turn expose with equal sincerity the failings, the wanderings of his heart, and, if he dare, aver, I was better than that man.
Joanne K. Rowling (1965) British novelist, author of the Harry Potter series
J. K. Rowling, as quoted in Harry Potter's Bookshelf : The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures (2009) by John Granger <!-- also partly in Biography Today : Profiles of People of Interest to Young Readers Vol. 17, Issue 1 (2008), p. 142 -->
2000s
Context: I think most of us if you were asked to name a very evil regime would think of Nazi Germany. … I wanted Harry to leave our world and find exactly the same problems in the Wizarding world. So you have to the intent to impose a hierarchy, you have bigotry, and this notion of purity, which is a great fallacy, but it crops up all over the world. People like to think themselves superior and that if they can pride themselves on nothing else, they can pride themselves on perceived purity. … The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it's one of the reasons that some people don't like the books, but I think that it's a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth.
Manly P. Hall (1901–1990) Canadian writer and mystic
Quoted in the tribute of The Lost Symbol (2009) by Dan Brown
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928)
Context: A nation with culture is blessed. To live in the world without becoming aware of the meaning of the world is like wandering about in a great library without touching the books. It has always seemed to me that symbolism should be restored to the structure of world education. The young are no longer invited to seek the hidden truths, dynamic and eternal, locked within the shapes and behavior of living beings.
Dua Lipa (1995) English singer and songwriter
Dua Lipa Plays With Boundaries, Interview, 2017-03-29 https://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/dua-lipa,
“I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy.”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer
Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902–1991) Polish-born Jewish-American author
Nobel lecture as quoted in The Observer (17 December 1978) Variant: "They still believe in God, the family, angels, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other obsolete stuff."
“We cannot tear a single page from our life, but we can throw the whole book into the fire.”
George Sand book Mauprat
Nous ne pouvons arracher une seule page de notre vie, mais nous pouvons jeter le livre au feu.
Source: Mauprat, ch. 11 (1837); Matilda M. Hays (trans.) Mauprat (London: E. Churton, 1847) p. 121
“A book worth reading is worth owning.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic
Variant: If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.
“For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004) French photographer
“She loved to walk down the street with a book under her arm. It differentiated her from the others”
Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.”
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
Source: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965), p. 400
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Variant: There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
“There never yet have been, nor are there now, too many good books.”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian
As quoted in Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (1984) by Leslie Halliwell
Variant: I find TV very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.”
Italo Calvino The Uses of Literature
Source: The Uses of Literature
“One Book is enough, but a thousand books is not too many!”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
“Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
“She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain”
Louisa May Alcott book Work: A Story of Experience
Variant: She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain.
Source: Work: A Story of Experience
“I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded by books.”
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature
Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher
Truth, Power, Self : An Interview with Michel Foucault (25 October 1982)
Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter
Variant: I always read the last page of a book first so that if I die before I finish I'll know how it turned out.
Source: When Harry Met Sally
“All I ask of life, he says, is a bunch of books, a bunch of dreams, and a bunch of cunt.”
Henry Miller book Tropic of Cancer
Source: Tropic of Cancer
“Every book is a great action and every great action is a book!”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation