Quotes about reading

A collection of quotes on the topic of reading, read, books, book.

Best quotes about reading

„Tell me how you read and I'll tell you who you are.“

— Martin Heidegger German philosopher 1889 - 1976

„Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself.“

— George Bernard Shaw Irish playwright 1856 - 1950

„When I read about the dangers of drinking, I gave up reading“

— Henny Youngman American comedian 1906 - 1998

Variant: When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.

„Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body.“

— Joseph Addison politician, writer and playwright 1672 - 1719

No. 147.
The Tatler (1711–1714)
Variant: A good conscience is to the soul what health is to the body
Context: Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body. As by the one, health is preserved, strengthened, and invigorated: by the other, virtue (which is the health of the mind) is kept alive, cherished, and confirmed.

„There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.“

— Joseph Brodsky Russian and American poet and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate 1940 - 1996

Misattributed

„"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)

„Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.“

— Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

Source: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

„I am too fond of reading books to care to write them.“

— Oscar Wilde, book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

„My Best Friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read.“

— Abraham Lincoln 16th President of the United States 1809 - 1865

„We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.“

— Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

75
Source: Stray Birds (1916)

All quotes about reading

Total 4750 quotes reading, filter:

„When I'm 80 years old and sitting on my rocking chair, I'll be reading Harry Potter. And my family will ask me: «After all this time?» and I'll say: «Always».“

— Alan Rickman English film, television and stage actor 1946 - 2016

Family, Time

„Reading is the greatest thing ever, I've read alot that I know what very few people know… That the stars in the night sky are suns and that there are earth-like planets orbiting those stars, meaning there are other planets like earth out there… Reading is great“

— Cornelius Keagon Liberian humanitarian aid worker 1996

Star, People, Night, Sun

„Just because you read it in a magazine,
Or see it on a TV screen
Don't make it factual.“

— Michael Jackson American singer, songwriter and dancer 1958 - 2009

Tabloid Junkie
HIStory: Past, Present & Future, Book I (1995)

„Please read my diary, look through my things and figure me out.“

— Kurt Cobain, book Journals

Source: Journals

„I am not well read, but when I do read, I read well.“

— Kurt Cobain, book Journals

Source: Journals (2002), p. 124

„Every single pleasure I can imagine or have experienced is more delightful, more of a pleasure, if you take it in small sips, if you take your time. Reading is not an exception.“

— Amos Oz Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual 1939 - 2018

Pleasure, Imagination, Time

„The best way to know the soul of another country is to read its literature.“

— Amos Oz Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual 1939 - 2018

Way, Soul, Literature, Country

„That individual who reads useful books is no longer on the same plane of thinking as those who neglected them.“

— Mwanandeke Kindembo 1996

Thinking, Books

„The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.“

— Alvin Toffler American writer 1928 - 2016

Learning

„Where is the book in which the teacher can read about what teaching is? The children themselves are this book. We should not learn to teach out of any book other than the one lying open before us and consisting of the children themselves.“

— Rudolf Steiner Austrian esotericist 1861 - 1925

Source: Rhythms of Learning

Children, Books, Lying, Learning

„If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.“

— Emily Dickinson American poet 1830 - 1886

Books

„Pick up a book on any subject of your desire, sit down in full discipline, then read quietly. Remember, you are never alone. God is within and is always watching.“

— Mwanandeke Kindembo 1996

God, Books

„Life is too short to read a bad book.“

— James Joyce Irish novelist and poet 1882 - 1941

Life, Books

„For every book you buy, you should buy the time to read it.“

— Karl Lagerfeld German fashion designer 1933 - 2019

Books, Time

„Some people like to read their bibles in the Hebrew; some like to read it in the Greek; I like to read it in the Holy Spirit“

— Smith Wigglesworth British evangelist 1859 - 1947

Page 79
The Complete Story: A New Biography on the Apostle of Faith By Julian Wilson http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=e2RWZpOHfmoC|Wigglesworth:

People

„From childhood we are trained to have problems. When we are sent to school, we have to learn how to write, how to read, and all the rest of it.“

— Jiddu Krishnamurti Indian spiritual philosopher 1895 - 1986

Source: 1980s, That Benediction is Where You Are (1985), p. 18
Context: From childhood we are trained to have problems. When we are sent to school, we have to learn how to write, how to read, and all the rest of it. How to write becomes a problem to the child. Please follow this carefully. Mathematics becomes a problem, history becomes a problem, as does chemistry. So the child is educated, from childhood, to live with problems — the problem of God, problem of a dozen things. So our brains are conditioned, trained, educated to live with problems. From childhood we have done this. What happens when a brain is educated in problems? It can never solve problems; it can only create more problems. When a brain that is trained to have problems, and to live with problems, solves one problem, in the very solution of that problem, it creates more problems. From childhood we are trained, educated to live with problems and, therefore, being centred in problems, we can never solve any problem completely. It is only the free brain that is not conditioned to problems that can solve problems. It is one of our constant burdens to have problems all the time. Therefore our brains are never quiet, free to observe, to look. So we are asking: Is it possible not to have a single problem but to face problems? But to understand those problems, and to totally resolve them, the brain must be free.

School, Problem, Learning, Childhood

„Continuous reading is the price that each author must pay.“

— Mwanandeke Kindembo 1996

„After writing a story I was always empty and both sad and happy, as though I had made love, and I was sure this was a very good story although I would not know truly how good until I read it over the next day.“

— Ernest Hemingway American author and journalist 1899 - 1961

Love, Sadness, Happiness

„Rose once told me about this poem she’d read. There was this line, ‘If your eyes weren’t open, you wouldn’t know the difference between dreaming and waking.’ You know what I’m afraid of? That someday, even with my eyes open, I still won’t know.“

— Richelle Mead American writer 1976

Dreams

„Read a little. Meditate more. Think of God all the time.“

— Paramahansa Yogananda Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship 1893 - 1952

God, Thinking, Time

„One of these days some simple soul will pick up the book of God, read it, and believe it. Then the rest of us will be embarrassed.“

— Leonard Ravenhill British writer 1907 - 1994

God, Books, Soul

„No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.“

— Mary Wortley Montagu writer and poet from England 1689 - 1762

Pleasure

„If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.“

— Albert Einstein German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity 1879 - 1955

Found in Montana Libraries: Volumes 8-14 (1954), p. cxxx http://books.google.com/books?id=PpwaAAAAMAAJ&q=%22more+fairy+tales%22#search_anchor. The story is given as follows: "In the current New Mexico Library Bulletin, Elizabeth Margulis tells a story of a woman who was a personal friend of the late dean of scientists, Dr. Albert Einstein. Motivated partly by her admiration for him, she held hopes that her son might become a scientist. One day she asked Dr. Einstein's advice about the kind of reading that would best prepare the child for this career. To her surprise, the scientist recommended 'Fairy tales and more fairy tales.' The mother protested that she was really serious about this and she wanted a serious answer; but Dr. Einstein persisted, adding that creative imagination is the essential element in the intellectual equipment of the true scientist, and that fairy tales are the childhood stimulus to this quality." However, it is unclear from this description whether Margulis heard this story personally from the woman who had supposedly had this discussion with Einstein, and the relevant issue of the New Mexico Library Bulletin does not appear to be online.
Variant: "First, give him fairy tales; second, give him fairy tales, and third, give him fairy tales!" Found in The Wilson Library Bulletin, Vol. 37 from 1962, which says on p. 678 http://books.google.com/books?id=KfQOAQAAMAAJ&q=einstein#search_anchor that this quote was reported by "Doris Gates, writer and children's librarian".
Variant: "Fairy tales … More fairy tales … Even more fairy tales". Found in Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales by Jack Zipes (1979), p. 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=MxZFuahqzsMC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Variant: "If you want your children to be brilliant, tell them fairy tales. If you want them to be very brilliant, tell them even more fairy tales." Found in Chocolate for a Woman's Heart & Soul by Kay Allenbaugh (1998), p. 57 http://books.google.com/books?id=grrpJh7-CfcC&q=brilliant#search_anchor. This version can be found in Usenet posts from before 1998, like this one from 1995 http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.beatles/msg/cec9a9fdf803b72b?hl=en.
Variant: "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be very intelligent, read them more fairy tales." Found in Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema by Christopher Frayling (2005), p. 6 http://books.google.com/books?id=HjRYA3ELdG0C&lpg=PA6&dq=einstein%20%22want%20your%20children%20to%20be%20intelligent%22&pg=PA6#v=onepage&q=einstein%20%22want%20your%20children%20to%20be%20intelligent%22&f=false.
Variant: "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." Found in Super joy English, Volume 8 by 佳音事業機構 (2006), p. 87 http://books.google.com/books?id=-HUBKzP8zsUC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q&f=false
Disputed
Context: Fairy tales and more fairy tales. [in response to a mother who wanted her son to become a scientist and asked Einstein what reading material to give him]

Children, Intelligence

„The story you are about to read is a work of fiction. Nothing - and everything - about it is real.“

— Todd Strasser American author of young-adult and middle grade novels 1950

„People don't read any more. It's a sad state of affairs. Reading's the only thing that allows you to use your imagination. When you watch films it's someone else's vision, isn't it?"

[Interview in, 15 October 2005]“

— Lemmy Kilmister British singer-songwriter 1945 - 2015

People, Sadness, Imagination

„Nothing is better than reading and gaining more and more knowledge.“

— Stephen Hawking British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author 1942 - 2018

Knowledge

„But I know for a fact that had I had a father, I'd have some discipline. I'd have more confidence. Your mother cannot calm you down the way a man can. Your mother can't reassure you the way a man can. My mother couldn't show me where my manhood was. You need a man to teach you how to be a man. When I was young I was quiet, withdrawn. I read a lot, wrote poetry, kept a diary. I watched TV all day. I stayed in front of the television. It was when I was in front of the TV by myself, being alone in the house by myself, having to cook dinner by myself, eat by myself. Just being by myself and looking at TV, at families and all these people out there in this pretend world. I knew I could be part of it if I pretended too, So early on I just watched and emulated … and I just thirsted for that. I thought if I could be and act like those characters, act like those people, I could have some of their joy. If I could act like I had a big family I wouldn't feel as lonely.“

— Tupac Shakur rapper and actor 1971 - 1996

Posthumous attributions, Tupac: Resurrection (2003)

People, World, Family, Way

„Make sure that you are next year's big success story. Don't fall into the pit of people who have given up on making something of themselves, and make sure you make everything out of yourself. I'm getting too old for this. And when I retire someday, I'm going to want to sit down at a computer and play your games, read your stories, and watch your videos. Don't fall in with the people who have already given up on themselves. You are tomorrow's next big thing.“

— Scott Cawthon American independent video game designer 1971

People, Game, Success

„To meet these challenges requires cooperation on a scale not seen before. A realistic reading of the world today demands reinvigorated international and regional institutions. It demands that we confront threats before they spiral out of the control. And it requires American leadership — to protect our interests and uphold our values.“

— Al Gore 45th Vice President of the United States 1948

Quotes, IPI speech (2000)
Context: The disruption of the world's ecological systems — from the rise of global warming and the consequent damage to our climate balance, to the loss of living species and the depletion of ocean fisheries and forest habitats — continues at a frightening rate. Practically every day, it becomes clearer to us that must act now to protect our Earth, while preserving and creating jobs for our people.
And at the very same time that these threats are developing, the traditional nation-state itself is changing — as power moves upwards and downwards, to everything from supra-national organizations and coalitions all the way down to feuding clans. Susceptible to tyrants willing to exploit ethnic and religious rivalries, the weakest of these states have either imploded into civil war or threatened to lash out across their borders.
To meet these challenges requires cooperation on a scale not seen before. A realistic reading of the world today demands reinvigorated international and regional institutions. It demands that we confront threats before they spiral out of the control. And it requires American leadership — to protect our interests and uphold our values.

World

„It is of great advantage to the student of any subject to read the original memoirs on that subject, for science is always most completely assimilated when it is in the nascent state…“

— James Clerk Maxwell, book A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism

A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (1873), Preface, p. xiii.

Science

„A book worth reading is worth owning.“

— John Ruskin English writer and art critic 1819 - 1900

Variant: If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.

Books

„If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.“

— Charles Darwin British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection" 1809 - 1882

Source: The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809–82

Life, Music

„All novels are, or should be, written for both men and women to read, and I am at loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.“

— Anne Brontë, book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Preface, 2nd edition (22 July 1848)
Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848)
Context: I am satisfied that if a book is a good one, it is so whatever the sex of the author may be. All novels are, or should be, written for both men and women to read, and I am at loss to conceive how a man should permit himself to write anything that would be really disgraceful to a woman, or why a woman should be censured for writing anything that would be proper and becoming for a man.

Women, Men, Loss

„Your eyes flashed fire into my soul. I immediately read the words of Dostoyevsky and Karl Marx, and in the words of Albert Schweitzer, I FANCY YOU!“

— Eddie Izzard British stand-up comedian, actor and writer 1962

Dress to Kill (1998)
Source: Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill
Context: I had to chat up girls, and I'd only tagged them before. I didn't have the verbal power to be able to say, "Susan, I saw you in the classroom today. As the sun came from behind the clouds, a burst of brilliant light caught your hair, it was haloed in front of me. You turned, your eyes flashed fire into my soul, I immediately read the words of Dostoevsky and Karl Marx, and in the words of Albert Schweitzer, 'I fancy you.' " But no! At 13, you're just going, " 'Ello, Sue. I saw you in the room... I've got legs, have you? Oh yeah... Do you like bread? I've got a French loaf. [mimes smacking her with the loaf and dashing off] Bye! (I love you!)"

Soul

„Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.“

— Douglas Adams English writer and humorist 1952 - 2001

„Each of us has been made “a little lower than the angels.” What an incomprehensible compliment! But it’s not only a compliment; it’s also a responsibility, for our special status equalizes us with other people in the eyes of God. The Lord has exalted not only me or some special group; God has exalted everyone. It’s the people of Burkina Faso and Niger and Guyana and Haiti. It’s people who never learned to read and write or who live on fifty cents a day. All human beings have been made a little lower than the angels, and we have a responsibility to treat them accordingly.“

— Jimmy Carter American politician, 39th president of the United States (in office from 1977 to 1981) 1924

Source: Through the Year with Jimmy Carter: 366 Daily Meditations from the 39th President

God, People, Angels, Learning

„I can imagine no greater bliss than to lie about, reading novels all day.“

— Julia Quinn American novelist 1970

Source: Ten Things I Love About You

Lie, Imagination

„Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.“

— John Locke English philosopher and physician 1632 - 1704

As quoted in "Hand Book : Caution and Counsels" in The Common School Journal Vol. 5, No. 24 (15 December 1843) by Horace Mann, p. 371
Context: This is that which I think great readers are apt to be mistaken in; those who have read of everything, are thought to understand everything too; but it is not always so. Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections; unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment.

Knowledge, Thinking, Deep

„Read. Read. Read. Just don't read one type of book. Read different books by various authors so that you develop different style.“

— R.L. Stine American writer and producer 1943

Books

„The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.“

— Immanuel Kant German philosopher 1724 - 1804

Books, Past

„If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.“

— Mark Twain American author and humorist 1835 - 1910

No known source in Twain's works.
The earliest known source is a Usenet post from November 2000 https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=israel.francophones/j_b0peHVcJw/YN5cG6Pdk6QJ.
Disputed

„Without reading, we are all without light in the dark, without fire in the cold.“

— Tamora Pierce American writer of fantasy novels for children 1954

Source: Tortall and Other Lands: A Collection of Tales

Light

„The reason a writer writes a book is to forget a book and the reason a reader reads one is to remember it.“

— Thomas Wolfe American writer 1900 - 1938

Books, Forgetting

„Someday I must read this scholar Everyone. He seems to have written so much--all of it wrong.“

— Tamora Pierce, book Emperor Mage

Source: Emperor Mage

„I have good reason to be content,
for thank God I can read and
perhaps understand Shakespeare to his depths.“

— John Keats English Romantic poet 1795 - 1821

God, Understanding

„Reading is not walking on the words; it's grasping the soul of them.“

— Paulo Freire educator and philosopher 1921 - 1997

Soul

„A map says to you.
Read me carefully, follow me closely, doubt me not…
I am the earth in the palm of your hand.“

— Beryl Markham British writer, aviator, adventurer, racehorse trainer 1902 - 1986

„Reading gives us some place to go when we have to stay where we are.“

— Mason Cooley American academic 1927 - 2002

Variant: Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.

„How good are markets in predicting real-world developments? Reading the record, it is striking how many calamities that I anticipated did not in fact materialise.

Financial markets constantly anticipate events, both on the positive and on the negative side, which fail to materialise exactly because they have been anticipated.

It is an old joke that the stock market has predicted seven of the last two recessions. Markets are often wrong.“

— George Soros Hungarian-American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist 1930

World

„The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.“

— Katherine Mansfield New Zealand author 1888 - 1923

Letter to Ottoline Morrell (January 1922)

Pleasure, Books

„It's a mistake to read. Television is the only way.“

— Conan O'Brien American television show host and comedian 1963

Way

„When I buy a new book, I always read the last page first, that way in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends. That, my friend, is a dark side.“

— Nora Ephron Film director, author screenwriter 1941 - 2012

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

Books, Way

„Easy reading is damn hard writing.“

— Nathaniel Hawthorne American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879) 1804 - 1864

Also attributed to Ernest Hemingway and others; the earliest definite occurrence of this yet found in research for Wikiquote is by Maya Angelou, who stated it in Conversations With Maya Angelou (1989) edited by Jeffrey M. Elliot:
I think it's Alexander Pope who says, "Easy writing is damn hard reading," and vice versa, easy reading is damn hard writing
The statement she referred to is most probably:
You write with ease, to show your breeding,
But easy writing's curst hard reading
Clio's Protest, or the Picture Varnished (written 1771, published 1819) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
Disputed

„He who does not travel, who does not read,
who does not listen to music,
who does not find grace in himself,
she who does not find grace in herself,
dies slowly.
He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,
who does not allow himself to be helped“

— Pablo Neruda Chilean poet 1904 - 1973

dies slowly…
Muere lentamente quien no viaja, quien no lee,
quien no oye música,
quien no encuentra gracia en sí mismo.
Muere lentamente
quien destruye su amor propio,
quien no se deja ayudar...
Poem "Muere lentamente" (Dying Slowly), wrongly attributed to Pablo Neruda. See "Fake Pablo Neruda Poem Spreads on Internet" http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=325275&CategoryId=14094 by Ana Mendoza, Latin American Herald Tribune (12 January 2009).
Misattributed
Source: Selected Poems

Music, Travel, Help

„Reading is not an end to itself, but a means to an end.“

— Adolf Hitler, book Mein Kampf

Source: Mein Kampf

„All good tales are true tales, at least for those who read them, which is all that counts.“

— Javier Cercas Spanish writer, journalist and professor of Spanish literature 1962

„I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.“

— Orhan Pamuk, book The New Life

Source: The New Life

Life, Books, Change

„I've read the last page of the Bible, it's all going to turn out all right.“

— Billy Graham American Christian evangelist 1918 - 2018

„The heart is the only book worth reading.“

— Ajahn Chah thai Buddhist monk 1918 - 1992

Books, Heart

„Reading… a vacation for the mind….“

— Dave Barry American writer 1947

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

— Victor Hugo French poet, novelist, and dramatist 1802 - 1885

Light, Learning

„It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful.“

— Vincent Van Gogh Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890) 1853 - 1890

Books, Beauty

„David Eddings:‏ I'm afraid that ignorance, hate, racism, and violence will be exacerbated by silence. If speaking out is not an answer then what is?
Markus Persson:‏ Reading up on history, thinking for yourself, and not being an idiot.“

— Markus Persson Swedish video game programmer 1979

In Twitter (14 August 2017) https://twitter.com/notch/status/897158641962319878

Hate, History, Thinking, Silence

„I was just reading some poetry, and it talked about how things start as one thing and change into another, and I just thought, what a great concept for a song.“

— Tommy Lee American drummer 1962

http://www.drdrew.com/article.asp?id=393.

Change

„Learning is to a man as the leaves and branches are to a tree, and it can be said that he should not be without it. Learning is not only reading books, however, but is rather something that we study to integrate with our own way of life.
One who is born into the house of a warrior, regardless of his rank or class, first acquaints himself with a man of military feats and achievements in loyalty, and, listening to just one of his dictums each day, will in a month know 30 precepts. Needless to say, if in a year he learns 300 precepts, at the end of that time he will be much the better.
Thus, a man can divide his mind into three parts: he should throw out those thoughts that are evil, take up those ideas that are good, and become intimate with his own wisdom… I would honor and call wise the man who penetrates this principle, though he lacks the knowledge of a single Chinese character. As for those who are learned in other matters, I would avoid them regardless of how deep their knowledge might be. That is how shallow and untalented this monk is.“

— Takeda Shingen Japanese daimyo of the Sengoku period 1521 - 1573

William Scott Wilson, ‎Gregory Lee. Ideals of the Samurai: Writings of Japanese Warriors, 1982. p 95

Life, Wisdom, Books, Way

„I am thankful that the President of the United States has given me permission to tell my story. I hope that he and those in authority under him will read my story and judge whether my people have been rightly treated.“

— Geronimo leader of the Bedonkohe Apache 1829 - 1909

Geronimo's Story of His Life (1907)

People, Hope

„All innovators, logically speaking, have been Futurists in relation to their time. Palestrina would have thought that Bach was crazy, and Bach would have thought Beethoven the same, and Beethoven would have thought Wagner equally so.
Rossini liked to boast that he had finally understood the music of Wagner—by reading it backward; Verdi, after listening to the overture to Tannhäuser, wrote to a friend that Wagner was mad.
So we stand at the window of a glorious mental hospital, even while we unhesitatingly declare that counterpoint and the fugue, which even today are still considered the most important branches of musical instruction…“

— Francesco Balilla Pratella Italian composer 1880 - 1955

Original text:
Tutti gli innovatori sono stati logicamente futuristi, in relazione ai loro tempi. Palestrina avrebbe giudicato pazzo Bach, e così Bach avrebbe giudicato Beethoven, e così Beethoven avrebbe giudicato Wagner.
Rossini si vantava di aver finalmente capito la musica di Wagner leggendola a rovescio! Verdi, dopo un’audizione dell’ouverture del Tannhäuser, in una lettera a un suo amico chiamava Wagner matto.
Siamo dunque alla finestra di un manicomio glorioso, mentre dichiariamo, senza esitare, che il contrappunto e la fuga, ancor oggi considerati come il ramo più importante dell’insegnamento musicale...
Source: Technical Manifesto of Futurist Music (1911), p. 80

Music, Time, Madness

„The seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.“

— Alhazen Arab physicist, mathematician and astronomer 965 - 1039

Alhazen, quoted in “Muslim Journeys.” Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2013. Also in Ibn al-Haytham Brief life of an Arab mathematician: died circa 1040 (September-October 2003) http://harvardmagazine.com/2003/09/ibn-al-haytham-html

Truth, Faith, Question, Nature

„The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, "Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem." If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant. You take action.“

— Al Gore 45th Vice President of the United States 1948

Testimony before Congress (21 March 2007), as quoted in "Gore Implores Congress To Save The Planet" at CBS Evening News (21 March 2007) http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/03/21/politics/main2591104.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_2591104

Problem, Science, Baby

„It was all a dream, I used to read Word Up magazine. Salt-n-Peppa, Heavy D up in tha limousine. Hangin' pictures on my wall, every Saturday rap attack, Mr. Magic Marley Marl. I let my tape rock till my tape pop, smoking weed and bamboo, sippin' on Private Stock. Way back, when I had the red-and-black lumberjack, with the hat to match. Remember Rappin' Duke? Duh-ha duh-ha, you never thought that hip hop would take it this far. Now I'm in the limelight 'cause I rhyme tight. Time to get paid, blow up like the World Trade! Born sinner, the opposite of a winner. Remember when I used to eat sardines for dinner.“

— The Notorious B.I.G. American rapper 1972 - 1997

Song lyrics, Ready to Die (1994), "Juicy"

World, Dreams, Way, Time

— George Müller German-English clergyman 1805 - 1898

A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller Written by Himself, First Part.
First Part of Narrative

God, Truth, Way

„Most rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read. “

— Frank Zappa American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer 1940 - 1993

People

„I don't expect it to be easy, but I'm certain it will be fruitful. My mission is to take a different approach: Instead of explicitly encouraging young people to read, my goal is to get them to see the value in their own narratives — that they, too, have a story, and that there's power not just in telling it, but in the opportunity to do so.“

— Jason Reynolds author of young adult novels 1983

As quoted in [Jason Reynolds Named New National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, https://www.loc.gov/item/prn-20-002/jason-reynolds-named-new-national-ambassador-for-young-peoples-literature/2020-01-13/, Library of Congress, 10 March 2020, January 13, 2020]

People

„The greatest danger to our future is apathy. We cannot expect those living in poverty and ignorance to worry about saving the world. For those of us able to read this magazine, it is different. We can do something to preserve our planet.“

— Jane Goodall British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist 1934

"The Power of One", TIME Magazine (26 August 2002) http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1003125,00.html

World, Future

„A musician is similar to someone who wrote a letter to the loved one. Then decided to read it out loud instead of sending it.“

— Mwanandeke Kindembo 1996

Love

„A fool may buy all the books in the world, and they will be in his library; but he will be able to read only those that he deserves to.“

— Swami Vivekananda Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher 1863 - 1902

Source: Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 9 Vols.

Books, World, Fools

„What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote, and brings to birth in us also the creative impulse.“

— E.M. Forster English novelist 1879 - 1970

"Anonymity: An Enquiry"
Source: Two Cheers for Democracy (1951)

Literature, Birth

„Children don't read to find their identity, to free themselves from guilt, to quench the thirst for rebellion or to get rid of alienation. They have no use for psychology… They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff… When a book is boring, they yawn openly. They don't expect their writer to redeem humanity, but leave to adults such childish illusions.“

— Isaac Bashevis Singer Polish-born Jewish-American author 1902 - 1991

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."

God, Children, Books, Family

„Beppu (n.)

The triumphant slamming shut of a book after reading the final page.“

— Douglas Adams, book The Meaning of Liff

Source: The Deeper Meaning of Liff

Books

„If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?“

— Emily Dickinson American poet 1830 - 1886

Letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1870), letter #342a of The Letters of Emily Dickinson (1958), edited by Thomas H. Johnson, associate editor Theodora Ward, page 474
Source: Selected Letters

Books, Way, Feeling

„Life is a book and there are a thousand pages I have not yet read.“

— Cassandra Clare, book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Life, Books

„I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say.“

— Flannery O’Connor American novelist, short story writer 1925 - 1964

Thinking

„You're never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.“

— Dr. Seuss American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books 1904 - 1991

Books

„I would so hate to be a first-person character! Always on your guard, always having people read your thoughts!“

— Jasper Fforde, book Lost in a Good Book

Source: Lost in a Good Book

Hate, People, Personality

„If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of, no shortcut.“

— Stephen King American author 1947

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Way

„I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most.“

— Margaret Atwood Canadian writer 1939

Pleasure, Learning

„Books can truly change our lives: the lives of those who read them, the lives of those who write them. Readers and writers alike discover things they never knew about the world and about themselves.“

— Lloyd Alexander American children's writer 1924 - 2007

Source: Time Cat

Books, World, Change

„If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.“

— Toni Morrison American writer 1931 - 2019

Books, Deep

„If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.“

— Stephen King American author 1947

Variant: Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.
Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Time

„If you read, you'll judge.“

— Kurt Cobain American musician and artist 1967 - 1994

„Believe everything you read“

— Kurt Cobain American musician and artist 1967 - 1994

„I love to read, and I don't believe that you have to finish one book before you start another.
--Mallory Pike“

— Ann M. Martin American writer of children's literature 1955

Source: Hello, Mallory

Love, Books

„Besides, rereading, not reading, is what counts.“

— Jorge Luis Borges Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature 1899 - 1986

„You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.“

— Ray Bradbury, book Ray Bradbury

As quoted in "Bradbury Still Believes in Heat of ‘Fahrenheit 451’" http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930312&slug=1689996, interview by Misha Berson, in ', credited to "Ray Bradbury, quoted by Misha Berson in Seattle Times", in "Quotable Quotes", The Reader's Digest, Vol. 144, No. 861, January 1994, p. 25 http://books.google.com/books?output=html&id=ZqqUAAAAIAAJ&q=%22people+to+stop+reading%22#search_anchor), or an indirect reference to the re-quoting in Reader's Digest (such as: The Times Book of Quotations (Philip Howard, ed.), 2000, Times Books and HarperCollins, p. 93
Variant: We're not teaching kids to read and write and think. … There's no reason to burn books if you don't read them.
As quoted in "At 80, Ray Bradbury Still Fighting the Future He Foresaw" http://www.raybradbury.com/articles_peoria.html, interview by Roger Moore, in The Peoria Journal Star (August 2000)
Context: The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. Look at the magazines, the newspapers around us – it's all junk, all trash, tidbits of news. The average TV ad has 120 images a minute. Everything just falls off your mind. … You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

People, Books