Book quotes
21K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside book — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Take a book, the poorest one written, but read it with the passion that it is the only book you will read. Ultimately, you will read everything out of it, that is, as much as there was in yourself, and you could never get more out of reading, even if you read the best of books."
"I think that good writing is based on good reading. Maybe it's not about writing today, maybe it's about reading today. Maybe it's about finding the sort of book you would never read."
"For me, each book is kind of like a silent film. If you were to remove the words and just look at the pictures, you should be able to tell what the story is about without having to read a word of text. That's what I think I brought from doing artwork for film to doing artwork for books."
"Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book's truth."
"There are no faster or firmer friendships than those formed between people who love the same books."
"Snooki is a bestselling author? Huh? What? I don't know if I should dumb down my book, shoot myself or find a publisher who'll settle for a rough draft written on a Pop-Tart and a coconut lotion handie."
"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."
"In Marseilles they make half the toilet soap we consume in America, but the Marseillaise only have a vague theoretical idea of its use, which they have obtained from books of travel."
"I read that book Fat is a Feminist issue, got a bit desperate halfway through and ate it."
"Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it."
"Books are easy to find and easy to buy. A paperback these days only costs six or seven dollars. You can borrow that from your kids!"
"Human minds are more full of mysteries than any written book and more changeable than the cloud shapes in the air."
"I read books and talked to people. I mean that's kind of how one learns anything. There's lots of great books out there & lots of smart people."
"Don't you ever mind," she asked suddenly, "not being rich enough to buy all the books you want?"
"One cannot simply read the Bible, like other books. One must be prepared really to enquire of it. Only thus will it reveal itself. Only if we expect from it the ultimate answer, shall we receive it. That is because in the Bible God speaks to us. And one cannot simply think about God in one’s own strength, one has to inquire of him. Only if we seek him, will he answer us."
"Students will read if we give them the books, the time, and the enthusiastic encouragement to do so. If we make them wait for the one unit a year in which they are allowed to choose their own books and become readers, they may never read at all. To keep our students reading, we have to let them."
"Beware the man of the single book"
"The Christians and the Jews do not believe that the Bible is the verbatim words of God. In fact it is clear that the books of the Bible are written by men - allegedly inspired men - but humans nonetheless. God in the Bible is spoken of in third person. This gives the believer a degree of caution. If the writers of the Bible were humans and humans are fallible, the Bible should not be taken literally. It is possible to interpret it, use one's logic to understand it in the light of science and adapt its teachings to meet the needs of the time."
"When I was training to be a pilot, there was a large section in the book on how to drop mail from the plane."
"In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity."
