Quotes about reading

A collection of quotes on the topic of reading.

„On the information sheet in a New York hotel, I recently read: 'Dear guest! To guarantee that you will fully enjoy your stay with us, this hotel is totally smoke-free. For any infringement of this regulation, you will be charged $200.' The beauty of this formulation, taken literally, is that you are to be punished for refusing to fully enjoy your stay.“

— Slavoj Žižek Slovene philosopher 1949

Beauty

„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

„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

„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

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

— Karl Lagerfeld German fashion designer 1933 - 2019

Books, Time

„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

„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
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

„I need your help. The abstruse nature of the subject requires not only concentrated reading, not alone clear understanding, but co-operation with the author. For that which could easily be made comprehensible by personal contact and demonstration, must of necessity depend on mere words and intellectual concepts. Many of the questions that may arise in your mind during or after reading of each chapter can best be answered through the practical application of the exercises prescribed herein. Unfortunately, there is no other way to co-operate: the technique of acting can never be properly understood without practicing it.“

— Michael Chekhov Russian actor and director 1891 - 1955
To the Actor. London and New York: Routledge (2003)

Way, Exercises, Understanding, Question

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

— Martin Heidegger German philosopher 1889 - 1976

„It is as though a star throws the whole secret history of its being into its spectrum, and we have only to learn how to read it aright in order to solve the most abstruse problems of the physical Universe.“

— Herbert Dingle British astronomer 1890 - 1978
Introduction, page xxv

Secret, History, Star, Problem

„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

„The bishops play the hero and say they are ready to fight, even if it costs them their lives. The fight against whom? Against the people's government, of course, against our new democratic Yugoslavia … But how is it that the bishops did not issue this kind of pastoral letter, to be read in all the churches, in the days of Pavelić and the Germans, against those terrible massacres of Serbs in Croatia in which hundreds of thousands of women, children and menfolk lost their lives?“

— Josip Broz Tito Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman 1892 - 1980
Jasper Ridley, Tito: A Biography (Constable and Company Ltd., 1994), p. 278.

Women, Children, People, Fight

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

— James Joyce Irish novelist and poet 1882 - 1941

Life, Books

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

— René Descartes French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist 1596 - 1650

Men, Books, Past

„Some say life is the thing, but I prefer reading.“

— Ruth Rendell, A Judgement in Stone

Life

„When I possessed the keys, read the book and understood the symbols, I was permitted to lift the curtain of the Temple and enter.“

— P. D. Ouspensky Russian esotericist 1878 - 1947
Context: When I possessed the keys, read the book and understood the symbols, I was permitted to lift the curtain of the Temple and enter. its inner sanctum. And there I beheld a Woman with a crown of gold and a purple mantle. She held a sword in one hand and scales in the other. I trembled with awe at her appearance, which was deep and mysterious, and drew me like an abyss. "You see Truth," said the voice. "On these scales everything is weighed. This sword is always raised to guard justice, and nothing can escape it." "But why do you avert your eyes from the scales and the sword? They will remove the last illusions. How could you live on earth without these illusions? "You wished to see Truth and now you behold it! But remember what happens to the mortal who beholds a Goddess!" Card XI : Justice http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/sot/sot22.htm

Books

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