Book quotes
21K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside book — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"The last level of metaphor in the Alice books is this: that life, viewed rationally and without illusion, appears to be a nonsense tale told by an idiot mathematician. At the heart of things science finds only a mad, never-ending quadrille of Mock Turtle Waves and Gryphon Particles. For a moment the waves and particles dance in grotesque, inconceivably complex patterns capable of reflecting on their own absurdity."
"It is a miracle how God has so long preserved His Book! How great and glorious it is to have the Word of God!"
"Christ is the Master; the Scriptures are only the servant. The true way to test all the Books is to see whether they work the will of Christ or not. No Book which does not preach Christ can be apostolic, though Peter or Paul were its author. And no Book which does preach Christ can fail to be apostolic, although Judas, Ananias, Pilate, or Herod were its author."
"There were two free public libraries within walking distance of my home; I remember taking six books home from every visit, the limit set by the library."
"My first two books are out of print and, okay, they can sleep there comfortably. It's early work, derivative work."
"I love a statement by the apostle Paul, in the Book of Philippians in the Bible. I think the Corinthians had been writing to Paul, telling him that old men were chasing young women, nobody was tithing - and all that must have run Paul crazy. He wrote back and said, "If there be anything of good report, speak of these things." That's one of my principles.It's another discipline that I encourage myself to employ - to, as much as possible, say the courteous thing, and then be it."
"For a person who grew up in the '30s and '40s in the segregated South, with so many doors closed without explanation to me, libraries and books said, 'Here I am, read me.' Over time I have learned I am at my best around books."
"I don't see love as some perfect happily ever after thing like it is in books and movies. It's more like a bumpy road filled with potholes...and detours. Sometimes we even veer off into the ditch. But the places that road will take you, the things you'll experience, are worth all of the uncertainty."
"If I were a maker of books I should compile a register, with comments, of different deaths. He who should teach people to die, would teach them to live."
"To compose our character is our duty, not to compose books, and to win, not battles and provinces, but order and tranquillity in our conduct."
"I seek in books only to give myself pleasure by honest amusement; or if I study, I seek only the learning that treats of the knowledge of myself and instructs me in how to die well and live well."
"Books are pleasant, but if by being over-studious we impair our health and spoil our good humour, two of the best things we have, let us give it over. I, for my part, am one of those who think no fruit derived from them can recompense so great a loss."
"I don’t feel that it is necessary to know exactly what I am. The main interest in life and work is to become someone else that you were not in the beginning. If you knew when you began a book what you would say at the end, do you think that you would have the courage to write it? What is true for writing and for love relationships is true also for life. The game is worthwhile insofar as we don’t know what will be the end."
"There is no book so bad...that it does not have something good in it."
"And for the citation of so many authors, 'tis the easiest thing in nature. Find out one of these books with an alphabetical index, and without any farther ceremony, remove it verbatim into your own... there are fools enough to be thus drawn into an opinion of the work; at least, such a flourishing train of attendants will give your book a fashionable air, and recommend it for sale."
"The telephone book is full of facts, but it doesn't contain a single idea."
"If you never ask yourself any questions about the meaning of a passage, you cannot expect the book to give you any insight you do not already possess."
"A good book deserves an active reading. The activity of reading does not stop with the work of understanding what a book says. It must be completed by the work of criticism, the work of judging. The undemanding reader fails to satisfy this requirement, probably even more than he fails to analyze and interpret. He not only makes no effort to understand; he also dismisses a book simply by putting it aside and forgetting it. Worse than faintly praising it, he damns it by giving it no critical consideration whatever."
"I predict that this will be the greatest book ever and it will sell more than any other book in history"
"In the fairy tale the painting represents the here and now. The book is actually divided into five sections, through which the key character, the muse, leads us."
