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160 Quotes About Books & Reading

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Many of us have special memories of the books that have inspired us, and have learned the profound effect that reading the right book can have at the right moment. If you’re short on time, reading some quotes about books is the next best thing.

Books have the power to transport us to new worlds and different times , but they can also take us back to the important moments in our own lives.

From building your vocabulary to reducing stress, preventing age-related cognitive decline and increasing your ability to empathize, reading books is an easy way to look after your mind and body.

Whether you’re an avid reader or wish you read more, we hope you enjoy these quotes about books and reading!

Page Contents

Quotes About Books

Cicero quote "A room without books is like a body without a soul"

′Classic′ – a book which people praise and don’t read. Mark Twain
Sleep is good, he said, and books are better. George R.R. Martin
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. Charles W. Eliot
Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. Jane Smiley, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Novel
The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night. Isabel Allende

Thea Dorn quote "Take a good book to bed with you—books do not snore"

If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book. J.K. Rowling
One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. Carl Sagan
When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. Erasmus
Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks. Dr. Seuss
That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. Jhumpa Lahiri

Groucho Marx quote "Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read"

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return. Salman Rushdie
I love the smell of book ink in the morning. Umberto Eco
Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book. Bill Patterson
It is is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially. Donna Tartt, The Secret History
Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. Neil Gaiman

Henry Ward Beecher quote "Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?"

Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book. E.B. White
A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. Charles Baudelaire
There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island. Walt Disney
A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading. William Styron

Stephen King quote "Books are a uniquely portable magic"

The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries. Kurt Vonnegut
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx
I love books. I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas. I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud. Nnedi Okorafor

CS Lewis quote "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me"

Books were my pass to personal freedom. Oprah Winfrey
No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books. Elizabeth Barrett Browning
A half-read book is a half-finished love affair. David Mitchell
If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads. Francois Mauriac
Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories. Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest. C.S. Lewis

in the books sayings

Wear the old coat and buy the new book. Austin Phelps
The best books… are those that tell you what you know already. George Orwell, 1984
It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. C.S. Lewis
Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Neil Gaiman quote "A book is a dream you hold in your hands"

Reading one book is like eating one potato chip. Diane Duane
For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. Anne Lamott

Anna Quindlen quote "Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home"

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. Mortimer J. Adler
I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher
I guess there are never enough books. John Steinbeck

Joseph Joubert quote "The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones"

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries. Anne Herbert
Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books. Ursula K. LeGuin
A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. Terry Pratchett
If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it. Toni Morrison

Lemony Snicket quote"Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them"

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal! Thomas Babington Macaulay
Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper. David Quammen
You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. Paul Sweeney

Jorge Luis Borges quote "I have always imagined paradise will be a kind of library"

I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books. Gary Paulsen
Happiness. That’s what books smells like. Happiness. That’s why I always wanted to have a book shop. What better life than to trade in happiness? Saran MacLean
Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don’t you agree? Christopher Paolini

Stephen Fry quote "Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators"

Quotes About Reading

Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write. Annie Proulx
Reading brings us unknown friends. Honore de Belzac
My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. Malcolm X
Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere. Jean Rhys

Dr Seuss quotes "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go"

Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while. Malorie Blackman
We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else’s mind. Anna Quindlen
Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world. Napoleon Bonaparte
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Henry David Thoreau
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison

Mary Schmich quote "Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere"

Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. Harper Lee
Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I’d rather boast about the ones I’ve read. Jorge Luis Borges
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. Mary Wortley Montagu
A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. Abraham Lincoln
The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. Rene Descartes
You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive. James Baldwin

Logan Pearsall Smith quote "People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading"

Reading—the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay. William Styron
The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. Ursula K. LeGuin
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities. Ben Okri

Edith Sitwell quote "My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence"

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift. Kate DiCamillo
I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage. Roald Dahl
Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them. George Saunders
Reading—even browsing—an old book can yield sustenance denied by a database search. James Gleick

William Nicholson reading quote "We read to know we're not alone"

Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work. Khaled Hosseini
I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time. Virginia Woolf
Reading means borrowing. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds. Roxane Gay

Carlos Ruiz Zafón quote "Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you"

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
Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading. Rainer Maria Rilke
The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours. Alan Bennett, The History Boys
It wasn’t until I started reading and found books they wouldn’t let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else. John Waters

Margaret Atwood quote "I read for pleasure and that is the moment I learn the most"

Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly. Sir Francis Bacon
The world was hers for the reading. Betty Smith
Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world. Voltaire
If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. Stephen King
No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. Robert Frost

Fran Leibowitz reading quote "Think before you speak. Read before you think"

Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in your head. Paul Auster
A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting. Walter Mosley
Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul. Joyce Carol Oates
A word after a word after a word is power. Margaret Atwood
Only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers. Steven Spielberg

W Sommerset Maugham quote "To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life"

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live. Annie Dillard
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. John Locke
Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window. William Faulkner
Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you. Louis L’Amour

Jim Rohn reading quote "Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary"

Reading was a joy, a desperately needed escape — I didn’t read to learn, I was reading to read. Christian Bauman
Reading is departure and arrival. Terri Guillemets
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” President Harry Truman
Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real. Nora Ephron
Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. P.J. O’Rourke

Margaret Fuller quote about books "Today a reader, tomorrow a leader"

Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading. Lena Dunham
The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t. Mark Twain
A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight. Robertson Davies
Leaders are always readers. Kevin Trudeau

Orhan Pamuk reading quote "I read a book one day and my whole life was changed"

Ready for more reading? Check out our list of 8 Books for Graduate Students and flip some great pages today.

The Best Literary Quotes

Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills us. Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Virginia Woolf, Street Haunting
Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today. Holbrook Jackson
Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand. Ezra Pound

Victor Hugo quote "To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark"

I couldn’t live a week without a private library – indeed, I’d part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I’d let go of the 1500 or so books I possess. H.P. Lovecraft
Think of this – that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other. A.S. Byatt, Possession
If you stop to think about it, you’ll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories. Michael Ende

Louisa May Alcott quote "She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain"

There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away. Emily Dickinson
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde
In the end, we’ll all become stories. Margaret Atwood
Reading is my favorite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read. Anne Brontë
You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury

Oscar Wilde reading quote "It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it"

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451
Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. Gustave Flaubert
So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone. Roald Dahl, Matilda

Fernando Pessoa reading quote "Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life"

Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry. Cassandra Clare
Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though. J.D. Salinger
A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… the man who never reads lives only one. George R.R. Martin

Arthur Conan Doyle "It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own"

We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read. Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth
I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. Robert Louis Stevenson
Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw. David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them. Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

Italo Covino quote "A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say"

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond. C.S. Lewis
Isn’t it odd how much fatter a book gets when you’ve read it several times?” Mo had said…”As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells…and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower…both strange and familiar. Cornelia Funke, Inkspell
When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story’s voice makes everything its own. John Berger, Keeping a Rendezvous

Umberto Eco quote "We live for books"

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need 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 within us. That is my belief. Franz Kafka

We hope you’ve loved these quotes about books and reading.

It’s never too late (or early) to expand your horizons and start reading, and reading books is even good for your physical and mental health . So star turning those pages and getting inspired through reading today.

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Natalie Seale

80 Inspiring Quotes About Books and Reading

reading in bed

Books are important for the mind, heart, and soul. But don't take it from us: These quotes about reading speak for themselves.

By Stefanie Hargreaves

The power to be found between the pages of a book is formidable, indeed. And these 80 inspiring quotes about books and importance of reading are here to remind you of that. From beloved bestsellers to iconic celebrities, these quotes exemplify the benefits of reading and of a good books to comfort, challenge, and inspire you. For, as author Anna Quindlen says, "Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home."

"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." – Margaret Fuller

"A word after a word after a word is power." – Margaret Atwood

"One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time." – Carl Sagan

"Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world." – Napoleon Bonaparte

"A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors." – Charles Baudelaire

"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young." – Maya Angelou

Reading by the Fire

"Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift." – Kate DiCamillo

"I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them." – Emma Thompson

"It wasn't until I started reading and found books they wouldn't let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else." – John Waters

"Books are a uniquely portable magic." – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

"Books are mirrors: You only see in them what you already have inside you." – Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Read before you think

Think before you speak. Read before you think. – Fran Lebowitz

"Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading." – Lena Dunham

"If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book." – J.K. Rowling

"I can feel infinitely alive curled up on the sofa reading a book." – Benedict Cumberbatch

"Some books leave us free and some books make us free." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

reading in a window

"Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: They feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship." – Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live." – Joan Didion, The White Album

"Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world." – Jeanette Winterson

"A good would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit." – David Sedaris

"Books are, let's face it, better than everything else. If we played Cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go fifteen rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time." – Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree

reading with cat

We read to know we are not alone. – C.S. Lewis

"As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music. And, as you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul." – Ursula K. Le Guin

"It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words. Even if you don't have friends somewhere, you still have language, and it will find you and wrap its little syllables around you and suddenly there will be a story to live in." – Naomi Shihab Nye, I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven

"Read a lot. Expect something big, something exalting or deepening from a book. No book is worth reading that isn't worth re-reading." – Susan Sontag

"Have books ‘happened’ to you? Unless your answer to that question is ‘yes,’ I’m unsure how to talk to you." – Haruki Murakami

"A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth." – Andre Dubus, Meditations from a Movable Chair

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." – Frederick Douglass

"Literature is the safe and traditional vehicle through which we learn about the world and pass on values from one generation to the next. Books save lives." – Laurie Anderson

"Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps." – Ann Patchett

"Both reading and writing are experiences – lifelong – in the course of which we who encounter words used in certain ways are persuaded by them to be brought mind and heart within the presence, the power, of the imagination." – Eudora Welty

love to read

A room without books is like a body without a soul. – Cicero

"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries." – Rene Descartes

"That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet." – Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

"I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey. You open it, and off you go…" – Sharon Creech

"Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while." – Malorie Blackman

"Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them." – George Saunders

"A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading." – William Styron

"I guess a big part of serious fiction’s purpose is to give the reader, who like all of us is sort of marooned in her own skull, to give her imaginative access to other selves." – David Foster Wallace

"Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real." – Nora Ephron

"Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere." – Jean Rhys

"Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds." – Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive." – James Baldwin

in the books sayings

"Reading is important. If you know how to read, then the whole world opens up to you." – Barack Obama

"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong." – F. Scott Fitzgerald

"We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don’ts: We need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever." – Philip Pullman

"Books may well be the only true magic." – Alice Hoffman, Magic Lessons

"Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know." – Alberto Manguel, A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books

"A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation... A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on, you are enriched threefold." – Henry Miller, The Books in My Life

"Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work." – Khaled Hosseini

"It is known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else." – Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

"If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads." – François Mauriac

"To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life." – W. Somerset Maugham, Books And You

"I don't read a book; I hold a conversation with the author." – Elbert Hubbard

"Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again." – Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies... The man who never reads lives only one." – George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

"Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly." – Sir Francis Bacon

"Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul." – Joyce Carol Oates

"A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe." – Madeleine L'Engle

"Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let's not forget this." – Dave Eggers

"Isn't it odd how much fatter a book gets when you've read it several times? As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells... and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like pressed flower... both strange and familiar." – Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

"The best books... are those that tell you what you know already." – George Orwell, 1984

"Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one's own self." – Franz Kafka

"Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head." – Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies

"Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled 'This could change your life.'" – Helen Exley

"There are some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things." – Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot

"Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book." – John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

"The best moments in reading are when you come across something–a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things–which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours." – Alan Bennett, The History Boys

"Reading is essential for those who seek to rise about the ordinary." – Jim Rohn

"The story is truly finished–and meaning is made–not when the author adds the last period, but when the reader enters." – Celeste Ng

"One must always be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us." – Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

"A book is a gift you can open again and again." – Garrison Kellor

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers." – Charles W. Eliot

"Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don't you agree?" – Christopher Paolini

"Once you've read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you." – Louis L'Amour

"The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us." – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

"That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you to another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive–all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment." – Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

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88 Best Quotes About Books & Reading

Quote Graphic: The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest people of the past centuries. — Descartes

Books and reading are more than just hobbies — they’re gateways to other worlds, a form of travel while staying in place, and a catalyst for personal and social transformation.

They inspire our imaginations, broaden our horizons, and offer us perspectives we might never encounter otherwise. (And as Arthur taught us , having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card .)

Books are tools for change . They’ve sparked revolutions, preserved cultures, and even helped topple oppressive regimes.

But beyond their societal impact, books also provide personal growth and comfort. From classic literature to modern non-fiction, every page holds the potential for new knowledge and insight. 

Prominent figures and authors have spoken on the impact reading has had on their lives, shaping them into the changemakers they are today.

In this article, we’ve gathered some of the most empowering quotes about books and reading. 

These quotes encapsulate the joy, the education, and the transformative power that comes with being lost in a good book. 

Whether you’re an avid reader seeking affirmation or someone looking to cultivate a reading habit, these quotes are sure to resonate with you and perhaps inspire you to open that book you’ve been meaning to read. 

Dive in and be reminded of the incredible value of a well-written word:

You might also like: Quotes About Banned Books | Good Good Good Book Recommendations | Book Holidays & Months Calendar

The Best Quotes About Books & Reading

Famous quotes.

“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” — Carl Sagan

“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” — Carl Sagan

“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai

“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.” — Charles Baudelaire

“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.” — Charles Baudelaire

“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” — Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” — Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” — Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” — Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” — Maya Angelou

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” — Maya Angelou

“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” — Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” — Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney

“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotes About Books

“Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood.” — John Green

“Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood.” — John Green

“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” — Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.” — Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” — William Styron

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” — Charles W. Eliot

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” — Charles W. Eliot

“Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.” — David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“I am eternally grateful for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else might be going on.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake

“Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.” — Jeanette Winterson

“I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey. You open it, and off you go…” — Sharon Creech

“And most of all, books. They were, in and of themselves, reasons to stay alive. Every book written is the product of a human mind in a particular state. Add all the books together and you get the end sum of humanity. Every time I read a great book I felt I was reading a kind of map, a treasure map, and the treasure I was being directed to was in actual fact myself.” — Matt Haig , Reasons to Stay Alive

“I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.” — Emma Thompson

“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

“Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.” — Arnold Lobel

“Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.” — Arnold Lobel

Reading Quotes

“Read books. Care about things. Get excited. Try not to be too down on yourself. Enjoy the ever-present game of knowing.” — Hank Green

“Read books. Care about things. Get excited. Try not to be too down on yourself. Enjoy the ever-present game of knowing.” — Hank Green‍

“I think reading is part of the birthright of the human being.” — LeVar Burton

“The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” — Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.” — Kate DiCamillo

“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.” — Kate DiCamillo

“You should never read just for ‘enjoyment.’ Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends’ insane behavior, or better yet, your own. Pick ‘hard books.’ Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for god’s sake, don’t let me ever hear you say, ‘I can’t read fiction. I only have time for the truth.’ Fiction is the truth, fool! Ever hear of ‘literature’? That means fiction, too, stupid.” — John Waters, Role Models

“We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel… is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” — John Green , The Fault in Our Stars

“Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” — Jean Rhys

“I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time.” — Virginia Woolf, The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume Three, 1923-1928

“Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.” — Alberto Manguel, A Reading Diary

“Read the books they don’t want you to. That’s where the good stuff is.” — LeVar Burton

“Read the books they don’t want you to. That’s where the good stuff is.” — LeVar Burton

Inspiring Quotes About Reading

“Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.” — Louis L’Amour

“Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.” — Louis L’Amour

“I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.” — Orhan Pamuk, The New Life

“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” — Malorie Blackman

“Reading is like thinking, like praying, like talking to a friend, like expressing your ideas, like listening to other people’s ideas, like listening to music, like looking at the view, like taking a walk on the beach.” — Roberto Bolaño, 2666

“Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.” — Harold Bloom

“Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real.” — Nora Ephron

“Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms.” — Angela Carter

“Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in your head.” — Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” — W. Somerset Maugham, Books and You

“If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.” — François Mauriac

“If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.” — François Mauriac

Funny Quotes

“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.” — Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.” — Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Books were safer than other people anyway.” — Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.” — Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes

“People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.” — Logan Pearsall Smith

“The problem with books is that they end.” — Caroline Kepnes, You

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” — Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” — Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” — Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet .

“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.” — Mary Wortley Montagu

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C.S. Lewis

“Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.” — Stéphane Mallarmé

“Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.” — Stéphane Mallarmé

Short Quotes About Books and Reading

“Books may well be the only true magic.” — Alice Hoffman

“Books may well be the only true magic.” — Alice Hoffman

“Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work.” — Khaled Hosseini

“The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.” — Mary McLeod Bethune

“Think before you speak. Read before you think.” — Fran Lebowitz, The Fran Lebowitz Reader

“A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.” — Lisa Kleypas, A Wallflower Christmas

“Reading brings us unknown friends” — Honoré de Balzac

“Reading brings us unknown friends” — Honoré de Balzac‍

“In the end, we’ll all become stories.” — Margaret Atwood, Moral Disorder and Other Stories

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” — Emilie Buchwald

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” — Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“A good book is an event in my life.” — Stendhal, The Red and the Black

“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” — Sir Francis Bacon

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” — Jorge Luis Borges

“The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.” — George Orwell, 1984

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” — Margaret Fuller

“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” — Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” — Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

→ Read more short quotes

About Reading Making You a Better Writer

“You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” — Annie Proulx

“You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” — Annie Proulx

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” — William Faulkner

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” — Robert Frost

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin

More Quotes & Captions

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” — Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” — Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

“Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds.” — Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul… It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.” — Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” — James Baldwin

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” — J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest people of the past centuries.” — Descartes

“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest people of the past centuries.” — Descartes

“Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.” — Ezra Pound

“Reading is my favourite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read.” — Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

‍ You might also like: Calendar of Book Holidays | Calendar of Library Celebrations | Quotes About Banned Books

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100 Most Famous Book Quotes of All Time

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Have you ever encountered a quote that pierced your heart, made you laugh uncontrollably, brought a huge smile to your face, or made you bawl your eyes out?

I’m sure many of you have come across such quotes, and being readers, it’s an everyday thing for us, right? Well, it’s definitely for me! 

Certain phrases in a book hold the power to make us feel a plethora of emotions, and they stick with us even after the book is placed in our ‘finished reading section.’ 

Book quotes are worth writing and remembering, and if you connect with them, then they will be with you forever. 

To help you with the collection, I have compiled this list of 100 famous book quotes from some of the world’s most beloved authors and their best-known books. 

With the combination of classics and modern-day books , this list consists of quotes that have struck a chord in the hearts of millions around the world.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. _ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you. _ Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go… _ Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Dr Seuss
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. _ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Forgiveness condones nothing, but it does cast off the chains of anger, judgment, resentment, denial, and pain that choke growth. In this way, it allows for life, for freedom. So that’s what’s at stake when it comes to forgiveness: freedom. With this freedom, we can feel better, be better, and choose better next time. _ Michele Harper, The Beauty in Breaking
Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone … just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had. _ The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. _ Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well — or ill? _ John Steinbeck, East of Eden
This above all: To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. _ William Shakespeare, Hamlet
‘Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.’ _ E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web
I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. _ Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. _ George Orwell, Animal Farm
How you live your life is your business. But remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once. Most of us can’t help but live as though we’ve got two lives to live, one is the mockup, the other the finished version, and then there are all those versions in between. _ André Aciman, Call Me By Your Name
And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. _ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand. _ Margery Williams, Velveteen Rabbit
There are years that ask questions and years that answer. _ Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart. _ Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore
Ever’body’s askin’ that. ‘What we comin’ to?’ Seems to me we don’t never come to nothin’. Always on the way. _ John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath
Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. _ George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. _ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Tomorrow I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day. _ Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
Why, sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. _ Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass
Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. _ Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody. _ J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe. _ Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places. _ Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. _ Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering. _ Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger. _ Yann Martel, Life of Pi
You pierce my soul. I am half agony. Half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. _ Jane Austen, Persuasion
You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget. _ Cormac McCarthy, The Road
Call me Ishmael. _ Herman Melville, Moby Dick
He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart. _ Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. _ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey
Time is the longest distance between two places. _ Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie
The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude. _ Kate Chopin, The Awakening
We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep. _ Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. _ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading. _ Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go
My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time. _ Charles Dickens, David Copperfield
So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible. _ Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
I can’t stand it to think my life is going so fast and I’m not really living it. _ Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
The same substance composes us — the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star — we are all one, all moving to the same end. _ P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. _ Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson
I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way. _ Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility
Love is holy because it is like grace – the worthiness of its object is never really what matters. _ Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go on even though you’re scared. _ Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give
And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. _ Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you. _ Roald Dahl, The Witches
Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. _ Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42. _ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. _ William Shakespeare, As You Like It
Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold. _ S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders
Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living. _ Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Not all those who wander are lost. _ The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkein
Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches. _ William Goldman, The Princess Bride
You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. _ Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost. _ Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. _ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
For you, a thousand times over. _ Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever. _ Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
And may the odds be ever in your favor. _ Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy. _ William Golding, Lord of the Flies
Oh, the places you’ll go! You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights. _ Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go
The longer I live, the more uninformed I feel. Only the young have an explanation for everything. _ Isabel Allende, City of the Beasts
We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories. _ Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. _ William Shakespeare, The Tempest
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect. _ Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution. _ Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited
‘But man is not made for defeat,’ he said. ‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated.’ _ Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. _ Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for.” _ Joseph Heller, Catch-22
There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. _ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. _ To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
All we can know is that we know nothing. And that’s the height of human wisdom. _ Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
“We accept the love we think we deserve.” _ Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower
“But it’s like trying to hold on to a fistful of sand: all the little bits slip out of your hands, and then you’re just clutching air and grit.” _ Jenny Han To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive, and will come forth later, in uglier ways.” _ Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient
“But the truth is, praise is just like an addiction. The more you get it, the more of it you need just to stay even.” _ The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid
“Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing.” _ Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
“The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.” _ Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows
“Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.” _ Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom
“There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.” _ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
“God gives us the ugliness so we don’t take the beautiful things in life for granted.” _ Colleen Hoover, Ugly Love
“Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.” _ George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
“And that’s how easy it is for a writer to pretend to be someone they aren’t.” _ Colleen Hoover, Verity
“Nobody likes being alone that much. I don’t go out of my way to make friends, that’s all. It just leads to disappointment. ” _ Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood
“A lot of you cared, just not enough.” _ Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why
“There’s a difference between really loving someone and loving the idea of her.” _ Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
“Impulsive actions led to trouble, and trouble could have unpleasant consequences.” _ Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
“He really had been through death, but he had returned because he could not bear the solitude.” _ Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.” _ Markus Zusak, The Book Thief
“Behind every trial and sorrow that He makes us shoulder, God has a reason.” _ Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns
“Perhaps that’s why I find myself looking backward. The past has a clarity I can no longer see in the present.”  _ Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale
“It had always seemed to him a very plush kind of problem, a privilege, really, to consider whether life was meaningful or not.” _ Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
“She had never dreamed there could be so much pain in a life when there was nothing physically wrong. She hurt all the time. _ Stephen King, The Shining
“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” _ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world. _ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
“Humans are so ill-equipped for peace.” _ V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
“People always clap for the wrong reasons.” _ J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

There are so many incredible, famous book quotes out there; it’s hard to choose just a few! What are your favorite book quotes of all time? Let me know in the comments below!

Check out these other great posts!

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50 most inspiring literature quotes of all time.

Get inspired by the world’s most recognized book quotes – and make sure to read or re-read the books they come from.

Internet users share hundreds of thousands of quotes every day. Not too many people know that many of these great thoughts come from books. Even fewer know which books.

A single iconic sentence from a classic novel is not only a shot of positive energy. It’s proof that reading the remaining thousands of sentences will give the same level of pleasure and inspiration.

Want great quotes direct you to great reads? We list our 50 favorites below. For more inspiration, you can explore two quote collections.

First of all, you should check out Goodreads Quotes catalog – a section of the popular book recommendation site where users add their favorite quotes found in books.

By default, the book quotes on Goodreads are sorted by popularity (and this means the number of likes), so right away you’ll get inspired by the most powerful thoughts.

If you are looking for well-researched and attributed quotes, make sure to visit Wikiquote . Literary quotes are grouped by title, so it’s the easiest way to research the most interesting thoughts from specific books. What’s also very helpful, each detail page includes info about which chapter the particular quote comes from.

If there is a quote you believe should be added to the list, please share it in the comments below.

And now, take your time and get inspired!

50 most inspirational quotes from books

There is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. – H.Jackson Brown Jr., P.S. I Love You
Well-behaved women seldom make history. – Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. -André Gide

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. – André Gide, Autumn Leaves

You can hang this wonderful quote from André Gide on the wall. The artwork designed by Quotes and Prose is available for instant download, 8 × 10 inch jpeg or pdf file.

Who, being loved, is poor? – Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance
Every human life is worth the same, and worth saving. – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Get busy living, or get busy dying. – Stephen King, Different Seasons
The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. – Chuck Palahniuk, Diary

Travel far enough, you meet yourself.  - David Mitchell

Travel far enough, you meet yourself. – David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

A quote from David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas on a calligraphy print by Brenna Morris. The artwork is available in three sizes, from 4 × 6 to 8 × 10 inches.

None of us really changes over time. We only become more fully what we are. – Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat
Most people are nice when you finally see them. – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
Don’t panic. – Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time. – Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet In Heaven
When someone leaves, it’s because someone else is about to arrive. – Paulo Coelho, The Zahir

It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then. - Lewis Carroll

It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then. – Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

The design by Sweetest Pie. You can get it from Etsy as an instant download, and print yourself in one of two sizes.

The only limits for tomorrow are the doubts we have today. –Pittacus Lore, The Power of Six
It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives. – Lemony Snicket, The Ersatz Elevator
I don’t want to die without any scars. – Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
Fear doesn’t shut you down; it wakes you up. – Veronica Roth, Divergent

Because when you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worth while. - Lucy Maud Montgomery

When you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worth while. – Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

A quote beautifully visualized by Chasing Elephants. You can get a digital file of this green color version, but also ask the shop owner for a different set of colors.

The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt. – Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Yes: I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. – Oscar Wilde, The Critic as Artist
I dream. Sometimes I think that’s the only right thing to do. – Haruki Murakami, Sputnik Sweetheart

Not all those who wander are lost - Tolkien

Not all those who wander are lost. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

This beautiful design comes from The Love Shop. It’s available on as much as 38 different products, including wall art, home decor, apparel, and stationery.

⇢ Redbubble

If I got rid of my demons, I’d lose my angels. – Tennessee Williams, Conversations with Tennessee Williams
It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane. – Philip K. Dick, Valis
If you’re making mistakes it means you’re out there doing something. – Neil Gaiman, Make Good Art
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. – Paulo Coelho, Brida
If my life is going to mean anything, I have to live it myself. – Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief
To define is to limit. – Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time. – Thomas Merton, No Man Is an Island
If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all. – John Green, Paper Towns
Everything is possible. The impossible just takes longer. – Dan Brown, Digital Fortress
So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible. – Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. – Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan
Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. – Haruki Murakami, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Above all, don’t lie to yourself. – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. – John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from. – Cormac McCarthy, No Country For Old Men

We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy. - J.K. Rowling

We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy. – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

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Nothing that’s worthwhile is ever easy. – Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle
It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything. – Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club
Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. – Marthe Troly-Curtin, Phrynette Married
It is never too late to be wise. – Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak. – Sun Tzu, The Art of War
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple. – Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums
Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for. – Joseph Heller, Catch-22
All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Once upon a time, there was a man named Jack Gilbert, who was not related to me – unfortunately for me. 

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36 of the Best Book Lover Quotes for Readers

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Neymat Raboobee

When she's not writing, Neymat Raboobee is a copy editor. Her special skills include running in the opposite direction of deadlines and cooing over cats like she's paid to do it. Neymat was born and raised in Durban, South Africa and her dream is to one day move to a place where winter occurs for more than three (3) business days a year. To yell over cats with Neymat, email [email protected]

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Still, when people ask why I love books or reading, or why I brighten up every time I spy a bookstore or library, I can’t always find the right words to express myself. Thankfully, several people have already done it for me.

This is a list of 36 book lover quotes that sum up all the mushy gushy feelings within me about books and reading — and hopefully they resonate with you too!

The Best Book Lover Quotes

“A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.” ―Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

“Books were safer than other people anyway.” ―Neil Gaiman,  The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“Reality doesn’t always give us the life that we desire, but we can always find what we desire between the pages of books.” ―Adelise M. Cullens

“Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.” ―Alberto Manguel,  A Reading Diary

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ―Dr. Seuss,  I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

Dr. Seuss wall decal

“You can get lost in any library, no matter the size. But the more lost you are, the more things you’ll find.” ―Millie Florence,  Lydia Green Of Mulberry Glen

“Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities.” ―Ben Okri

“I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud.” ―Nnedi Okorafor

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” ―Stephen King,  On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Forest watercolor bookmark with the Stephen King quote:

“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” ―Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” ―Carlos Ruiz Zafón,  The Shadow of the Wind

“The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.” ―Mary McLeod Bethune

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” ―George R.R. Martin,  A Dance with Dragons

Print of the George R. R. Martin quote:

“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.” ―Anne Herbert

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” ―Jorge Luis Borges

“I believe there is power in words, power in asserting our existence, our experience, our lives, through words.” ―Jesmyn Ward,  The Fire this Time

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” ―Harper Lee,  To Kill a Mockingbird

“I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.” ―Orhan Pamuk,  The New Life

“No. I can survive well enough on my own — if given the proper reading material.” ―Sarah J. Maas,  Throne of Glass

“Once I began to read, I began to exist. I am what I read.” ―Walter Dean Myers, Open a World of Possible

“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.” ―Diane Duane,  So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.” ―David Mitchell,  Cloud Atlas

“I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else’s story, the delicious ache of a last page.” ―Naomi Shihab Nye

“Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work.” ―Khaled Hosseini

“It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.” ―Catherynne M. Valente,  The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

“A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.” ―Lisa Kleypas,  A Wallflower Christmas

A poster of the silhouette of a woman with the text

“The problem with books is that they end.” ―Caroline Kepnes,  You

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.” ―Maya Angelou

“In principle and reality, libraries are life-enhancing palaces of wonder.” ―Gail Honeyman,  Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

“I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.” ―Arthur Conan Doyle,  The Complete Sherlock Holmes

“When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” ―Jane Austen,  Pride and Prejudice

A wooden sign with the text

“The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” ―Malcolm X,  The Autobiography of Malcolm X

“You see, unlike in the movies, there is no THE END sign flashing at the end of books. When I’ve read a book, I don’t feel like I’ve finished anything. So I start a new one.” ―Elif Shafak,  The Bastard of Istanbul

“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

“In the end, we’ll all become stories.” ―Margaret Atwood, Moral Disorder and Other Stories

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” ―Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

Want more book lover quotes? Find the best quotes about books here , our favorite quotes about reading , short romantic book quotes (for weddings, letters, speeches), or the best literary quotes for Instagram captions !

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100 Book Quotes Every Book Lovers Will Love

By Maxime Lagacé

Maxime is the founder of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm and peaceful mind. Learn more about him on his about page .

Here are 100 of the most inspiring book quotes I could find. Hope you’ll find even more inspiration to read, learn and grow. Enjoy!

book quotes dream that you hold your hands neil gaiman wisdom woman reading

A book is a dream that you hold in your hands. Neil Gaiman

book quotes good creator inwardness susan sontag wisdom coffee glasses

A good book is a creator of inwardness. Susan Sontag

book quotes have always imagined paradise will kind library jorge luis borges wisdom

I have always imagined paradise will be a kind of library. Jorge Luis Borges

book quotes books training weights mind epictetus wisdom hand lifting

Books are the training weights of the mind. Epictetus

book quotes worth rereading reading nassim nicholas taleb wisdom woman library

Any book not worth rereading isn’t worth reading. Nassim Nicholas Taleb

book quotes books let into their souls lay open secrets william hazlitt wisdom

Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own. William Hazlitt

book quotes most what makes good reading right moment alain de botton wisdom pile

Most of what makes a book ‘good’ is that we are reading it at the right moment for us. Alain de Botton

book quotes buying books would good thing could buy time read them arthur schopenhauer wisdom man reading coffee

Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in. Arthur Schopenhauer

book quotes poet lights light fades away goes emily dickinson wisdom hand

The poet lights the light and fades away. But the light goes on and on. Emily Dickinson

book quotes greatest books have more insights one can absorb single reading james pierce wisdom woman sitting water dock

The greatest books have more insights than one can absorb in a single reading. James Pierce

book quotes stories illusion powerful invite delusion steward brand wisdom library books

Stories are illusion. They are so powerful they invite delusion. Stewart Brand

book quotes knowledge sets us free arts great library freedom ursula k le guin wisdom

Knowledge sets us free, art sets us free. A great library is freedom. Ursula K. Le Guin

book quotes good seems which opened expectation and closed profit louisa may alcott wisdom woman reading

That is a good book it seems to me, which is opened with expectation and closed with profit. Louisa May Alcott

book quotes only important thing meaning your w somerset maugham wisdom library

The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you. W. Somerset Maugham

book quotes encounter intellect should ask him books reads ralph waldo emerson wisdom camping laying nature

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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The Best Book Quotes

book quotes proof humans capable working magic carl sagan wisdom woman sitting reading

A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic. Carl Sagan
In a good book the best is between the lines. Swedish proverb
All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town. Leo Tolstoy
Readers are plentiful, thinkers are rare. Harriet Martineau
Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self. Franz Kafka
One kind of good book should leave you asking: how did the author know that about me? Alain de Botton

book quotes bad reading rush through good slow wise understand maxime lagace wisdom girl

Bad reading: when you rush through. Good reading: when you go slow. Wise reading: when you understand. Maxime Lagacé
The very greatest books only manage to illuminate the dark confusion of our lives like a brief brilliant firework. Alain de Botton
In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. Mortimer J. Adler
A book is something that can be read ten years after publication. A real book, twenty. Otherwise it is a magazine report with bookbinding. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Let just as many books be acquired as are enough, but none for mere show. Seneca
Of all that is written, I love only what a man has written with his own blood. Friedrich Nietzsche
As a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents. Arthur Schopenhauer

book quotes already discovered teleportation time travel good sahil lavingia wisdom hands coffee

We’ve already discovered teleportation and time travel: a good book. Sahil Lavingia
I was dumb. I thought reading the classics would make me wise and educated. Now, I simply read the books that interest me. Maxime Lagacé
Part 1. Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Barbara Tuchman
Part 2. They are engines of change, windows on the world and lighthouses erected in the sea of time. They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print . Barbara Tuchman
People who ask for book recommendations don’t read. Sahil Lavingia
Great books teach you something every time you read them. Angela Jiang

book quotes beware person thomas aquinas wisdom

Beware of the person of one book. Thomas Aquinas
Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher
A house is no home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as for the body. Margaret Fuller
I would rather read the 100 best books over and over again until I absorbed them, rather than read all the books. Naval Ravikant
The right book at the right time will speak to you in a way the right book at the wrong time just won’t. Naval Ravikant
My library is an archive of longings. Susan Sontag

Part 2. Book Quotes That Are…

The most famous book quotes (c.s. lewis, dr. seuss, emerson, etc.).

book quotes good friends sleepy conscience ideal life mark twain wisdom people table

Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. Mark Twain
So many books, so little time. Frank Zappa
Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him. Maya Angelou
If a book is well written, I always find it too short. Jane Austen
The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul – books. Emily Dickinson

book quotes classic which people praise dont read mark twain wisdom man

′Classic′ – a book which people praise and don’t read. Mark Twain
I was raised by books. Books, and then my parents. Elon Musk
Independent inquiry is needed in your search for truth, not dependence on anyone else’s view or a mere book. Bruce Lee
The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. Dr. Seuss
A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest. C.S. Lewis

book quotes friend loyal ernest hemingway wisdom man sitting reading

There is no friend as loyal as a book. Ernest Hemingway
I was with book, as a woman is with child. C.S. Lewis ( Till We Have Faces , Amazon book)
Your face is a book, where men may read strange matters. William Shakespeare
Literature and butterflies are the two sweetest passions known to man. Vladimir Nabokov
Throw away your books; stop letting yourself be distracted. Marcus Aurelius (It seems Marcus Aurelius was not a dreamer…)
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes. Desiderius Erasmus
It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. Friedrich Nietzsche

book quotes always tends overpraise because one has got through forster wisdom

One always tends to overpraise a long book, because one has got through it. E. M. Forster
Anyone who reads a book with a sense of obligation does not understand the art of reading. Lin Yutang ( The Importance of Living , Amazon book)
There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it. Bertrand Russell
Sleep is good, he said, and books are better. George R. R. Martin
A lawyer without books would be like a workman without tools. Thomas Jefferson
A book worth reading is worth buying. John Ruskin
Some books leave us free and some books make us free. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Short Book Quotes

Go to table of contents

book quotes water mind susan sontag wisdom woman sitting coffee

I water my mind with books. Susan Sontag
Words are life. Markus Zusak ( The Book Thief , Amazon book)
Books are absent teachers. Mortimer J. Adler
When I had nothing, I had books. Jola Tankoka
Read more books and fewer articles. Morgan Housel
Books are a uniquely portable magic. Stephen King

book quotes brain muscle weights james clear wisdom boy

Your brain is a muscle and books are the weights. James Clear
Books may well be the only true magic. Alice Hoffman
No two persons ever read the same book. Edmund Wilson
A room without books is like a body without a soul. Cicero
Good books don’t give up all their secrets at once. Stephen King
I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. Jane Austen

book quotes superpowers they ground you make fly too maxime lagace wisdom woman

Books have superpowers; they ground you and make you fly too. Maxime Lagacé
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Cicero
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Henry David Thoreau

Inspirational Book Quotes

book quotes frigate like take lands away emily dickinson wisdom woman sitting reading

There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away. Emily Dickinson
It is the nature of those books we call classics to wait patiently on the shelf for us to grow into them. Erica Jong
Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light. Vera Nazarian
The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it. Elizabeth Drew
Don’t read to show off, read to take off. Maxime Lagacé

book quotes library serves visual reminder what dont know shane parrish wisdom boy looking

My library serves as a visual reminder of what I don’t know. Shane Parrish
That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. Jhumpa Lahiri
Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. Neil Gaiman
There is no better teacher than history in determining the future. There are answers worth billions of dollars in a $30 history book. Charlie Munger
A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation. Lend and borrow to the maximum – of both books and money! But especially books, for books represent infinitely more than money. A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold. Henry Miller

book quotes funny little portable pieces thought susan sontag wisdom mother daughter sitting reading

Books are funny little portable pieces of thought. Susan Sontag
Books are gateways into other worlds and other minds into which you cannot otherwise travel. Unknown
I’ll never forgive books for being 300 pages when they could have been 30. Unknown
Think how quiet a book is on a shelf, just sitting there, unopened. Then think what happens when you open it. Ali Smith
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed on and digested. Francis Bacon
Buying books isn’t spending, it’s investing. Sven Schnieders

Further Readings

  • Topic: Education
  • 100 Education Quotes That Will Inspire You To Keep Growing
  • 100 Curiosity Quotes To Increase Your Desire To Learn
  • 65 Growth Mindset Quotes (To Improve Your Life)
  • 145 Thinking Quotes To Make You More Thoughtful
  • 81 The Alchemist Quotes And Summary (Book by Paulo Coelho)
  • What Book has the Most Page-for-Page Wisdom? (fs.blog)
  • 210 History Quotes That Will Surprise And Inspire You
  • 100 Humanity Quotes That Will Touch Your Heart
  • 150 Art Quotes To Bring Out Your Inner Artist

Table Of Contents

Part 1 Top 15 Images Best Quotes

Part 2 Book Quotes That ARE Famous Short Inspirational

Part 3 Conclusion

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"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." -Aristotle

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The 22 best book quotes — and the books they come from

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  • Some of the best quotes about life and love come from literature.
  • We've gathered some of the best book quotes as well as the books they're from.
  • Want more books? Check out our list of the best classic books .

Insider Today

Great literature has gifted us some of the most meaningful and timeless quotes about life, love, and everything in between. Writers can put words to the feelings and experiences we can't quite capture ourselves and leave us with quotes that resonate long after we've turned the page. Readers have found moving quotes in everything from gothic classics to contemporary young adult reads . 

Sometimes, we're inspired by a quote that we didn't even know came from a book. I've heard "Not all those who wander are lost" countless times but never knew it was from a beloved fantasy series. To create this list, I looked at some of the most memorable and moving quotes from literature throughout time. For readers looking for a new inspirational read or wondering where some of the greatest lines originated from, here are some of the best literary quotes and the books they came from.

The 22 best book quotes of all time:

"love is or it ain't. thin love ain't love at all.".

in the books sayings

"Beloved" by Toni Morrison, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $9.29

" Beloved " is a Pultizer Prize-winning historical fiction about Sethe, an escaped slave still running from her past 18 years later. Haunted both metaphorically by her memories and literally by the ghost of her baby, Sethe's past and present collide when a mysterious teenage girl arrives with the same name engraved upon her child's tombstone.

"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship."

in the books sayings

"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $5.47

This adored classic is about four sisters — Jo, Beth, Meg, and Amy — who are struggling to survive in New England during the Civil War. First published in 1869, this novel has delighted readers for generations as they follow the sisters on each of their unique journeys to womanhood. 

"Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."

in the books sayings

"Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $14.99

First published in 1969, " Slaughterhouse-Five " is an anti-war novel about Billy Pilgrim, who becomes a chaplain's assistant in the US. Army during World War II. While the story begins with Billy's childhood and continues years after the war, Billy occasionally travels through time to reflect upon his life, humanity, and the devastating effects of war.

"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."

in the books sayings

"The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.89

" The Alchemist " is a powerful and inspirational story full of wisdom about a boy named Santiago who travels to Egypt from Spain in search of a treasure buried near the Pyramids. On his adventure, Santiago encounters numerous obstacles, meets interesting new people, and discovers so much more than the treasure he once sought.

"There is always something left to love."

in the books sayings

"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez, available at Amazon and Bookshop , $14.49

This beautiful multi-generational story of the Buendía family begins with José Arcadio Buendía, the founding patriarch of the town of Macondo. Following seven generations of the family through feuds, friendships, and technological advancements, this novel uses magical realism to explore extraordinary moments through time.

"What's the point of having a voice if you're gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn't be?"

in the books sayings

"The Hate U Give" by Angie Thomas, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.98

" The Hate U Give " is a moving and timely young adult read about Starr Carter, a 16-year-old who witnesses her best friend, Khalil, get shot and killed by the police. When his death makes national headlines, everyone wants to hear what really happened, but Starr is fully aware of what telling the truth could mean as well as the consequences of staying silent.

"They say nothing lasts forever but they're just scared it will last longer than they can love it."

in the books sayings

"On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous " by Ocean Vuong, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $9.67

This stunning and poetic novel is a letter from a son to his mother, who cannot read. Little Dog is in his 20s, exploring and speaking frankly about sexuality, masculinity, grief, and race as he unravels his family's history rooted in Vietnam, leading to an unforgettable conclusion in this powerful novel about humanity and language. 

"Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for."

in the books sayings

"Catch-22" by Joseph Heller, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.22

Loved as a funny and realistic view on war, " Catch-22 " is about Yossarian, a bombardier during World War II who is mad that thousands of enemies are trying to kill him while his army continues to increase the number of dangerous missions he's required to fly. Yossarian finds himself in a Catch-22, a bureaucratic rule that says men who continue to fly dangerous missions should be considered insane, yet if they make a request to be removed, they are proven sane and ineligible for relief.

"I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am."

in the books sayings

"The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $15

" The Bell Jar " is a semi-autobiographical novel and a haunting classic from Sylvia Plath. The book follows Esther Greenwood, a young woman in Boston who is consumed by depression and anxiety as her mental state worsens over time.

"Time moves slowly, but passes quickly."

in the books sayings

"The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $12.99

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, " The Color Purple " is a magnificent and important novel about the abuse silently suffered by Black women in the 20th century. Celie and Nettie are sisters who were separated as children but continue to communicate and share messages of hope through letters that sustain them through seemingly insurmountable pain in this story of strength and redemption.

"Now that I knew fear, I also knew it was not permanent. As powerful as it was, its grip on me would loosen. It would pass."

in the books sayings

"The Round House" by Louise Erdrich, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.25

This 2012 National Book Award winner follows a young boy on the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota whose community and family is changed forever in the wake of a terrible crime. Richly layered, this profound mystery is about so much more than finding a criminal and seeking justice.

"When I discover who I am, I'll be free."

in the books sayings

"Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $13.99

" Invisible Man " is a 1952 classic that shaped American literature as an unnamed man from the South who gets a scholarship to an all-Black school in Harlem but must participate in a horrifying and humiliating "battle royal" in order to claim his spot. Powerful and raw, this novel explores identity and belonging as the narrator continues to search for his individuality in a society that doesn't want him to be himself. 

"Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful."

in the books sayings

"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $5.52

First published in 1818, " Frankenstein " is a horror classic about a scientist named Victor Frankenstein who brings a monster to life and flees his laboratory in disgust, to return the next day and find that the creature is missing. In this novel that explores the dark power of alienation, Frankenstein's monster tells the devastating story to his creator of his first challenging days in the world.

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

in the books sayings

"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.99

In this classic French children's book , a young prince meets a pilot whose plane has crashed in the desert, who begins to tell him his story of traveling across various planets and all he had seen and learned along the way. One of the most translated books in the world, " The Little Prince " is for readers of all ages who wish to reminisce upon the nostalgic innocence of childhood.

"Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!"

in the books sayings

"Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.99

" Don Quixote " is a historical novel from the 1600s and one of the top-selling books of all time . Quixano is a young nobleman who decides to become a knight-errant after reading countless romances and falling in love with the idea of chivalry. Under the name "Don Quixote de la Mancha," Quixano brings the witty Sancho Panza along as his squire on his quest for knighthood.

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

in the books sayings

"Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.36

" Wuthering Heights " is a classic, gothic novel from 1847 about two families — the Lintons and the Earnshaws — and their relationships with the Earnshaws' adopted son, Heathcliff. Full of complex characters, this classic follows Heathcliff's young friendship with his benefactor's daughter, Cathy, as it grows and morphs into a passionate and twisted romance.

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

in the books sayings

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.35

" I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings " is Maya Angelou's first book in her multi-volume autobiography series. This installment offers a glimpse at Maya Angelou's early years as she struggles against racism when she and her brother are sent to live with their grandmother in a small Southern town. When she returns to live with her mother, a horrible attack changes Maya Angelou's life forever in this memoir about identity, race, and hope in the face of impossible circumstances. 

"Nolite te bastardes carborundorum."

in the books sayings

"The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.99

Offred can remember enjoying life with her husband and daughter not long ago. Now, trapped in a dystopian present where women are only valued if they have viable ovaries, Offred is the Commander's handmaid, forced to lie down for him once a month and pray she gets pregnant in this devastatingly memorable read .

"As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once."

in the books sayings

"The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $6.10

Hazel's terminal cancer diagnosis has been extended by a few years when she meets a gorgeous boy named Augustus in her support group. Immediately drawn to one another, they agree to read each other's favorite books, launching a whirlwind teenage romance that's full of love and heartbreak.

"That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet."

in the books sayings

"The Namesake" by Jhumpa Lahiri, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $10.98

" The Namesake " is Jhumpa Lahiri's first novel and explores the immigrant experience through the Ganguli family, whose story begins as Ashoke and Ashima uproot their traditional life in Calcutta and move to America shortly after their arranged marriage so Ashoke can attend school at MIT. When Ashima names their child Gogol, the meaning of his name continues to follow him through his life as he navigates the expectations of a first-generation immigrant.  

"We accept the love we think we deserve."

in the books sayings

"Perks of Being A Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $7.19

In this unique coming-of-age novel set in the 1990s, Charlie is a freshman in high school who is torn between passivity and a budding passion for life while also being stuck between childhood and adulthood. This book is a compilation of his letters to an unknown recipient, discussing the challenges he faces with his family, in school, and in his personal life.

"Not all those who wander are lost."

in the books sayings

"The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkein, available at Amazon and Bookshop , from $8.27

" The Fellowship of the Ring " is the first novel in the classic fantasy "Lord of the Rings" series. In this book , the hobbit Bilbo Baggins entrusts young Frodo Baggins with an incredible and dangerous task: To take the powerful Ring to the Cracks of Doom and destroy it once and for all. Frodo sets off on an epic adventure across Middle-Earth in this beloved and revered novel.

in the books sayings

  • Main content

The 100 Best Quotes About Reading

100 Best Quotes About Reading

You know our goal at Bookroo is to help you spend less time searching for books so you can spend more time reading! That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the 100 best quotes about reading. Read on to see the many insightful, witty, and motivating things that have been said about reading by authors, poets, scientists, artists, visionaries and even comedians.

Let us know in the comments below which is your favorite, and what quotes you would add to the list!

“ A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one. ” - George R.R. Martin

“ Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing. ” - Harper Lee

“ Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them. ” - Lemony Snicket

“ You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ” - C.S. Lewis

“ Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary. ” - Jim Rohn

“ I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. ” - Groucho Marx

“ ‘Classic’ – a book which people praise and don’t read. ” - Mark Twain

“ You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. ” - Ray Bradbury

“ So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall. ” - Roald Dahl

“ Think before you speak. Read before you think. ” - Fran Lebowitz

“ Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading. ” - Lena Dunham

“ That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. ” - Jhumpa Lahiri

“ The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries. ” - Descartes

“ In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. ” - Mortimer J. Adler

“ Reading one book is like eating one potato chip. ” - Diane Duane

“ The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go. ” - Dr. Seuss

“ Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while. ” - Malorie Blackman

“ Books are a uniquely portable magic. ” - Stephen King

“ I read a book one day and my whole life was changed. ” - Orhan Pamuk

“ People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading. ” - Logan Pearsall Smith

“ Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. ” - Margaret Fuller

“ People can lose their lives in libraries. They ought to be warned. ” - Saul Bellow

“ A good book is an event in my life. ” - Stendhal

“ Reading brings us unknown friends ” - Honoré de Balzac

“ The world was hers for the reading. ” - Betty Smith

“ I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. ” - Robert Louis Stevenson

“ The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn’t know how to read. ” - Benjamin Franklin

“ Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you. ” - Louis L’Amour

“ Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. ” - Fernando Pessoa

“ No. I can survive well enough on my own—if given the proper reading material. ” - Sarah J. Maas

“ There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island. ” - Walt Disney

“ We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read. ” - Jules Verne

“ A room without books is like a body without a soul. ” - Cicero

“ My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. ” - Malcolm X

“ It’s not that I don’t like people. It’s just that when I’m in the company of others – even my nearest and dearest – there always comes a moment when I’d rather be reading a book. ” - Maureen Corrigan

“ Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them. ” - Arnold Lobel

“ There is nothing more luxurious than eating while you read—unless it be reading while you eat. ” - E. Nesbit

“ One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. ” - Carl Sagan

“ I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage. ” - Roald Dahl

“ Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand. ” - Ezra Pound

“ If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads. ” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. ” - P.J. O’Rourke

“ Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. ” - Jane Smiley

“ Beware of the person of one book. ” - Thomas Aquinas

“ Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. ” - Henry David Thoreau

“ Make it a rule never to give a child a book you would not read yourself. ” - George Bernard Shaw

“ Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all. ” - Abraham Lincoln

“ I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once. ” - C.S. Lewis

“ You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. ” - Paul Sweeney

“ Some books leave us free and some books make us free. ” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“ Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. ” - Frederick Douglas

“ There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all. ” - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

“ Wear the old coat and buy the new book. ” - Austin Phelps

“ “You may have tangible wealth untold. Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be — I had a mother who read to me. ” - Strickland Gillilan

“ The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t. ” - Mark Twain

“ To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. ” - Victor Hugo

“ Oh, magic hour, when a child first knows she can read printed words! ” - Betty Smith

“ A book is a gift you can open again and again. ” - Garrison Keillor

“ Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks. ” - Dr. Seuss

“ Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world. ” - Napoléon Bonaparte

“ A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say. ” - Italo Calvino

“ I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. ” - Jorge Luis Borges

“ Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere. ” - Mary Schmich

“ No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. ” - Mary Wortley Montagu

“ I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them. ” - Emma Thompson

“ If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books. ” - Roald Dahl

“ That perfect tranquility of life, which is nowhere to be found but in retreat, a faithful friend and a good library. ” - Aphra Behn

“ To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life. ” - W. Somerset Maugham

“ Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book. ” - Bill Watterson

“ These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone. ” - Roald Dahl

“ I guess there are never enough books. ” - John Steinbeck

“ Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day. ” - Voltaire

“ If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book. ” - J.K. Rowling

“ Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries. ” - Anne Herbert

“ Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading. ” - Rainer Maria Rilke

“ Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. ” - Emilie Buchwald

“ I couldn’t live a week without a private library – indeed, I’d part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I’d let go of the 1500 or so books I possess. ” - H.P. Lovecraft

“ Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book. ” - E.B. White

“ Luckily, I always travel with a book, just in case I have to wait on line for Santa, or some such inconvenience. ” - David Levithan

“ Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read. ” - Groucho Marx

“ Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else. ” - Albert Einstein

“ I always read. You know how sharks have to keep swimming or they die? I’m like that. If I stop reading, I die. ” - Patrick Rothfuss

“ There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away ” - Emily Dickinson

“ I intend to put up with nothing that I can put down. ” - Edgar Allan Poe

“ Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. ” - Henry Ward Beecher

“ I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes. It involves Russia. ” - Woody Allen

“ There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. ” - Joseph Brodsky

“ When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young. ” - Maya Angelou

“ I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. ” - Jane Austen

“ Books break the shackles of time – proof that humans can work magic. ” - Carl Sagan

“ Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for. ” - Socrates

“ For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading. It’s not the most social pastime. ” - Audrey Hepburn

“ Reading for me, is spending time with a friend. ” - Gary Paulsen

“ [F]rom the reading of ‘good books’ there comes a richness of life that can be obtained in no other way. ” - Gordon B. Hinckley

“ Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste. ” - Voltaire

“ How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. ” - Henry David Thoreau

“ Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life. ” - Mortimer J. Adler

“ A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest. ” - C.S. Lewis

“ It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own. ” - Arthur Conan Doyle

“ Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind. ” - Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

“ What better occupation, really, than to spend the evening at the fireside with a book, with the wind beating on the windows and the lamp burning bright. ” - Gustave Flaubert

“ I’m old-fashioned and think that reading books is the most glorious pastime that humankind has yet devised. ” - Wisława Szymborska

“ Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today. ” - Holbrook Jackson

“ You're never too old, too wacky, too wild to pick up a book and read to a child. ” - Anita Merina

“ Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper. ” - David Quammen

“ Reading should not be presented to children as a chore or a duty. It should be offered as a gift. ” - Kate DiCamillo

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Best 70 Book Quotes for Bibliophiles and Avid Readers

Ioanna Zafeiriou Quotes book titles , education and academic life , entertainment

Look at me! I can bring a smile on your face or a tear to your eye. I can fly you around the world and to far distant places. I can show you how things are done, reveal secrets and knowledge. For I am a book , an instrument of learning and awakening. That is more or less the message that’s hidden behind all these book quotes below.

Books can be truly amazing! They are the most loyal friends and expert mentors with a power to influence our thoughts and emotions and positively affect our lives. They ignite our imagination and function as doorways to other worlds, defying the limits of space and time. Books are simply a portal to magic!

They are quintessential in the development of our cognitive functions, molding our thinking and reasoning processes, challenging ideas and beliefs and therefore profoundly influencing who we become. Books help us expand our knowledge base through the acquisition of new concepts and competencies, are extremely beneficial for building up our vocabulary, reading and writing skills, and enhance our vivacity of expression.

Through a book we establish a mystical connection with its author, have the chance to get inside his mind and pick up the subtlest nuances. We get immersed in the narrative and actively intertwine with the characters, something that cultivates our empathy and adds depth to our emotional intelligence. Books are a heaven for our soul! They are the destination and the journey!

Here we have curated for you the most inspirational quotes on the value of books. Share them with your loved ones to enlighten and motivate them. Use them as a caption to add “depth” to your Instagram and social media posts! Reflect upon them, they are the next best thing to reading a book!

Table of Contents

Best book quotes that will make you appreciate their importance, passionate book lover quotes to stimulate enthusiasm for books, motivational reading books quotes on the knowledge and entertainment you get from them, famous book quotes that are full of wisdom, inspirational book quotes to think and reflect upon, book quotes about the peace and balance they bring to our life.

Here are the finest quotes about the key role books have in our life and culture.

  • A book is a dream that you hold in your hand. Neil Gaiman
  • A word after a word after a word is power. Margaret Atwood
  • The best books… are those that tell you what you know already. George Orwell
  • Books are a uniquely portable magic. Stephen King
  • Books were my pass to personal freedom. Oprah Winfrey
  • In the end, we’ll all become stories. Margaret Atwood
  • Books may well be the only true magic. Alice Hoffman A room without books is like a body without a soul. Cicero
  • Some books leave us free and some books make us free. Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • You have to be a bit of a liar to tell a story the right way. Patrick Rothfuss
  • I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books. Gary Paulsen
  • Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. Mark Twain
  • ′Classic′ – a book which people praise and don’t read. Mark Twain
  • Every story I create, creates me. I write to create myself. Octavia E. Butler
  • Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don’t you agree? Christopher Paolini
  • If you don’t see the book you want on the shelf, write it. Beverly Cleary
  • Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world. Napoleon Bonaparte
  • One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. Carl Sagan
  • All I have learned, I learned from books. Abraham Lincoln
  • Books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden to ourselves. Jeremy Collier
  • When I was a child, when I was an adolescent, books saved me from despair: that convinced me that culture was the highest of values. Simone de Beauvoir

Book Quote by Oprah Winfrey

A lot of people love reading, but some are fond of the book itself as an object. Be it the smell of the ink, the sound of turning the pages or the touch of the paper in your hands, these quotes will take you to the core of this feeling.

  • She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain. Louisa May Alcott
  • I love the smell of book ink in the morning. Umberto Eco
  • She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live. Annie Dillard
  • A first book has some of the sweetness of a first love. Robert Aris Willmott
  • I have always imagined paradise will be a kind of library. Jorge Luis Borges
  • I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. Jane Austen
  • Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore? Henry Ward Beecher
  • I cannot sleep unless I am surrounded by books. Jorge Luis Borges
  • Five years from now, you’re the same person except for the people you’ve met and the books you’ve read. John Wooden
  • What a blessing it is to love books as I love them; to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal! Thomas Babington Macaulay
  • I love books. I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas. I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud. Nnedi Okorafor
  • My best friend is a person who will give me a book I have not read. Abraham Lincoln
  • A status symbol is a book. A very easy book to read is The Catcher in the Rye. Walk around with that under your arm, kids. That is status. Vivienne Westwood
  • Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else. Mark Twain

The following quotes are about the habit and the experience of reading. Books have the power to take us on a journey in space and time – once you start reading, you enter a magical world that everything is possible!

  • No two persons ever read the same book. Edmund Wilson
  • If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book. K. Rowling
  • That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. Jhumpa Lahiri
  • A half-read book is a half-finished love affair. David Mitchell
  • I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book. K. Rowling
  • The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. Rene Descartes
  • It is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially. Donna Tartt
  • If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Haruki Murakami
  • I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey. You open it, and off you go… Sharon Creech
  • You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. Paul Sweeney
  • A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading. William Styron

Here are some quotes by great people of the past and the present on the significance of books.

  • Wear the old coat and buy the new book. Austin Phelps
  • I guess there are never enough books. John Steinbeck
  • Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world. Malala Yousafzai
  • You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. S. Lewis
  • A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one. George R.R. Martin
  • Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks. Dr. Seuss
  • Writing is nothing more than a guided dream. Jorge Luis Borges
  • Soon, books will read you while you are reading them. Yuval Noah Harari
  • If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it. Toni Morrison
  • There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island. Walt Disney
  • I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx

A book is never just a book – it is a friend, a mirror, a door, a fresh view and a wonderful journey to the world. Read these inspiring quotes and choose the one you like to write the nicest inscriptions!

  • A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. Charles Baudelaire
  • Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you. Carlos Ruiz Zafón
  • The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night. Isabel Allende
  • Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home. Anna Quindlen
  • Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world. Jeanette Winterson
  • My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. Malcolm X
  • The books that help you most are those which make you think that most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty. Pablo Neruda
  • A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return. Salman Rushdie
  • Think of this – that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other. S. Byat
  • The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. Oscar Wilde
  • In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. Mortimer J. Adler
  • Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher
  • A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth. Andre Dubus

These book quotes will educate you, make you think and maybe even provide you with an Instagram caption!

  • We tell ourselves stories in order to live. Joan Didion
  • Sleep is good, he said, and books are better. George R.R. Martin
  • I can feel infinitely alive curled up on the sofa reading a book. Benedict Cumberbatch
  • The only thing you absolutely have to know is the location of the library. Albert Einstein
  • Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. Jane Smiley
  • Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book. Bill Patterson
  • I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them. Emma Thompson
  • When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. Erasmus
  • You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury
  • Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries. Anne Herbert
  • Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book. B. White
  • There are three things that grow more precious with age; old wood to burn, old books to read, and old friends to enjoy. Henry Ford

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70 Book Quotes for Book Lovers and Avid Readers

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Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old books quotes, books sayings, and books proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Haruki Murakami
Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him. Maya Angelou
The book you don't read won't help. Jim Rohn
There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. Joseph Brodsky
Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out. J.K. Rowling
Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. Charles William Eliot
Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life. Stephen King
Books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life. Christopher Paolini
Here's to books, the cheapest vacation you can buy. Charlaine Harris
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde
A book is a gift you can open again and again. Garrison Keillor
Books are a uniquely portable magic. Stephen King
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. They are engines of change, windows on the world, lighthouses erected in the sea of time. Barbara W. Tuchman
Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn. Joseph Addison
Do not read good books--life is too short for that--read only the best. Ernest Dimnet
Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else. Mark Twain
No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally ? and often far more ? worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond. C.S. Lewis
Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home. Anna Quindlen
A good book has no ending. R.D. Cumming
The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; and, after an era of darkness, new races build others. But in the world of books are vol Clarence Shepard Day
Books are totally useless unless you take their advice. If you just keep reading them, thinking 'that's so insightful! that changes everything,' but never actually doing anything different, then pretty quickly the feeling will wear off and you'll start se Aaron Swartz
I don't believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book. J. K. Rowling
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested. Francis Bacon
A book is a friend; a good book is a good friend. It will talk to you when you want it to talk, and it will keep still when you want it to keep still; and there are not many friends who know enough to do that. B. A. Billingsly
A room without books is like a body without a soul. Marcus Tullius Cicero
Books, dear books, Have been, and are my comforts; morn and night, Adversity, prosperity, at home, Abroad, health, sickness?good or ill report, The same firm friends; the same refreshment rich, And source of consolation. Dr. Dodd.
Good books are to the young mind what the warming sun and the refreshing rain of spring are to the seeds which have lain dormant in the frosts of winter. They are more, for they may save from that which is worse than death, as well as bless with that whic Horace Mann
Nothing can supply the place of books. They are cheering or soothing companions in solitude, illness, affliction. The wealth of both continents would not compensate for the good they impart. Channing
Books are the ever-burning lamps of accumulated wisdom. George William Curtis
Book: A garden carried in a pocket. Arabian Proverb
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them. Mark Twain
To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them. Arthur Schopenhauer
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. Groucho Marx
There are two kinds of books. Those that no one reads and those that no one ought to read. H. L. Mencken
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind. James Russell Lowell
A book may be compared to your neighbor: if it be good, it cannot last too long; if bad, you cannot get rid of it too early. Rupert Brooke
The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of the past centuries. Descartes
A man is known by the books he reads. Ralph Waldo Emerson
A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our soul. Franz Kafka
A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever. Martin Tupper
Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time. E.P. Whipple
Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life. Robert Louis Stevenson
If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying. John Ruskin
Books open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can. William Feather
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all. Abraham Lincoln
A book can talk to your mind. A book can go around the world with you. A book can make you a smarter individual. Dr T.P.Chia
Good books enlighten the mind, bad books corrupt the soul. Dr T.P.Chia
Books are more than educational - they are the quiet friends, loyal companions, and untiring teachers. Dr T.P.Chia
I cannot live without books. Thomas Jefferson
There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island. Walt Disney
There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts. Charles Dickens
That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. Jhumpa Lahiri
A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading. William Styron
A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it. Edward P. Morgan
A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return. Salman Rushdie
A good book is an event in my life. Stendhal
You get a little moody sometimes but I think that's because you like to read. People that like to read are always a little fucked up. Pat Conroy
Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. Angela Carter
Books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden to ourselves. Jeremy Collier
There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them. Ray Bradbury
Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you. Louis L'Amour
There is no friend as loyal as a book. Ernest Hemingway
Books are mirrors. You only see in them what you already have inside of you. Carlos Zafon
Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly. Francis Bacon
Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light. Vera Nazarian
All good books have one thing in common, they are truer than if they had really happened. Ernest Hemingway
No two persons ever read the same book. Edmund Wilson
Some books leave us free and some books make us free. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Books were safer than other people anyway. Neil Gaiman
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. Marcus Tullius Cicero
Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood. John Green
There's nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. GAIL CARSON LEVINE
The world was hers for the reading. Betty Smith
Good books don't give up all their secrets at once. Stephen King
There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense. Harold Kushner
You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. C.S. Lewis
A book is a dream that you hold in your hand. Neil Gaiman
Books: a beautifully browsable invention that needs no electricity and exists in a readable form no matter what happens. Nicholson Baker
If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. Toni Morrison
Some like to believe it's the book that chooses the person. Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Reading one book is like eating one potato chip. Diane Duane
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Henry David Thoreau
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. Oscar Wilde
A good book should leave you, slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it. William Styron
There comes a time when you have to choose between turning the page and closing the book. Josh Jameson
There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it. Bertrand Russell
A book is a device to ignite the imagination. Alan Bennett
Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own. William Hazlitt
Keep reading books, but remember that a book is only a book, and you should learn to think for yourself. Maxim Gorky

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The Illustrated Book of Sayings: Curious Expressions from Around the World

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The Illustrated Book of Sayings: Curious Expressions from Around the World Hardcover – September 13, 2016

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  • Print length 112 pages
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Ella Frances Sanders

Ella Frances Sanders is a New York Times and internationally-bestselling author and illustrator of almost five books. She currently writes and illustrates a column about words for Orion Magazine, titled ‘Root Catalog’.

Her first book, LOST IN TRANSLATION, was published in the US by Ten Speed Press in 2014 (in the UK by Square Peg under the same title) and became an international bestseller. It sat on the New York Times bestseller list for 4 consecutive months, was an Amazon Best Book of 2014, and in 2018 it was announced as the No.1 book for the biggest bookseller in Japan, Kinokuniya, which is only the second time a non-fiction title has ever been chosen for the award in the bookseller’s history.

This was followed in 2016 by THE ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF SAYINGS from Ten Speed Press in the US (in the UK under the title SPEAKING IN TONGUES from Square Peg), and has also been translated into over ten languages.

Her third book, EATING THE SUN, was published in 2019 by Penguin in the US to a starred review from Publishers Weekly. It was the recipient of the 2019 Whirling Prize for prose, featured on The Marginalian Favorite Books of 2019 list, and has been translated into multiple languages, with a UK edition published by 535 (Bonnier) under the title A SMALL ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE.

CLOSE AGAIN was published in January 2022, and is an illustrated commentary on and investigation into life during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was published by Andrews McMeel in the US, with translations currently in Italian, German, and Japanese.

Sanders' fifth book, EVERYTHING, BEAUTIFUL, is out August 23rd 2022 in the US from Penguin Life, and soon after available September 1st in the UK from Square Peg.

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GameRant

Best Voldemort Quotes in Harry Potter

  • Voldemort's lines throughout the series are both terrifying and hilarious, leaving a lasting impact.
  • Some iconic quotes reveal Voldemort's intense hatred, cold-heartedness, and obsession with killing Harry Potter.
  • Voldemort's delusion, arrogance, and lust for power ultimately lead to his downfall.

The Harry Potter series has brought joy to people all over the world. It tells the story of a young boy who finds out he is a wizard and must learn the ways of magic to defeat the evil wizard who killed his parents. That evil wizard, Lord Voldemort , disappeared for a while, but he returned to wreak havoc on the magical world.

Harry Potter: 10 Things About Lord Voldemort The Movies Changed From The Books

When Voldemort returns he comes back with anger, vengeance, and some memorable quips and quotes. Voldemort delivers lines throughout the series that are terrifying for Harry Potter , Voldemort's opponents, and his Death Eaters, while others can be downright hysterical.

Updated January 31, 2024, by Ritwik Mitra: Voldemort is easily one of the most infamous villains of all time. The Dark Lord struck fear in the hearts of everyone in the Wizarding World, and his death was widely celebrated. However, it didn't take long for the dreaded wizard to come back from the dead, his chilling presence making every scene he's featured in a memorable one. The many lines that Voldemort has uttered throughout the Harry Potter series are iconic in their own right for a bevy of reasons.

"You Stand, Harry Potter, Upon The Remains Of My Late Father."

Harry potter and the goblet of fire.

  • Before the iconic fight in the graveyard after he's revived

The hate that Voldemort had for his own family was intense, with the man going so far as to kill his father as revenge for abandoning him. The fact that Tom Riddle Sr. was a Muggle also didn't let his son empathize with someone so weak.

After his revival near the end of The Goblet of Fire , Voldemort mentions that Harry is standing on the grave of his dead father before engaging in combat with the student. This leads to the iconic Priori Incantatem moment that compelled Voldemort to seek out the Elder Wand and best his rival.

"Dinner, Nagini."

Harry potter and the deathly hallows.

  • After the execution of Charity Burbage

Voldemort is a cold-hearted wizard who doesn't waste any time in showing everyone who's boss. In one scene, he established his dominance over the Death Eaters while also proclaiming his disdain for anyone who sympathized with Muggles.

Charity Burbage, a woman who taught Muggle Studies at Hogwarts, was captured and murdered by Voldemort with the Killing Curse. To make things worse, the Dark Lord fed her body to Nagini in a chilling scene most fans recall when thinking about this dark wizard's many atrocities.

"Do Nothing! He's Mine To Finish! He's Mine!"

Throughout the entire Harry Potter saga, Voldemort was intent on killing Harry Potter himself. His obsession with killing Harry almost matches his lust for power. In his mind, he is the greatest wizard and must kill "the chosen one."

When he regains his body and fights Harry in the graveyard, the wands connect, leading to a very disturbing situation for everyone involved. Still, Voldemort won't let his followers help him on his mission to kill Harry Potter.

"Was My Father A Wizard?"

Harry potter and the half-blood prince.

  • A chilling question from the boy who would grow up to become the Dark Lord

Very few of the Harry Potter books look at the backstory of Lord Voldemort, but the sixth book takes fans way back in the past. When Dumbledore goes to the orphanage where a young Tom Riddle lives, he tells the future Voldemort about the magical world. Tom Riddle never doubts Dumbledore's words but is curious if it runs in his family.

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This is important for a variety of reasons. Voldemort says that his mother couldn't have been magical because she died. He also wonders about the father that he never knew. This becomes very important when he turns evil and eventually kills his father.

"Voldemort Is My Past, Present, And Future."

Harry potter and the chamber of secrets.

  • Tom Marvolo Riddle reveals himself to be Lord Voldemort

Harry Potter learns a valuable lesson from his worst enemy in the second book. Harry has been communicating with the memory of Tom Riddle through a diary, but when he makes it down to the Chamber of Secrets, he finds that memory walking around as his friend's sister lies there dying.

While questioning Tom Riddle, Harry learns the 16-year-old boy in front of him will grow up to be the most evil wizard of all time. With this one quote, Tom Riddle lets Harry know not to trust just anyone.

"... I Could Not Touch Him, It Was Old Magic, Something I Should Have Forseen. But, No Matter, No Matter, Things Have Changed. I Can... Touch Him... Now!?"

  • Showing off his new power that let him circumvent the protection Harry's mom left behind before her demise

After Voldemort lost his body when trying to kill Harry the first time, he needed a way to be able to fight Harry. He learned while possessing Quirrell that he couldn't touch Harry due to old magic, but after taking Harry's blood, Voldemort was back in a true body and could touch Harry.

Granted, the reader learns this was part of Dumbledore's plan, as he knew that Voldemort wasn't fully gone. Dumbledore knew Voldemort would return and wanted the Dark Lord to take Harry's blood for a new magical bond. Still, Ralph Fiennes delivers this line menacingly in the film.

"They Never Learn. Such A Pity."

  • Deriding the defenders of Hogwarts before unleashing a brutal assault

While he may be verbally expressing pity during the Battle of Hogwarts, this is an expression of Lord Voldemort's arrogance. He has given those gathered to fight him the opportunity to stand down and let him take over. He knows they won't do it. That's when he delivers this line.

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He isn't demonstrating humanity but rather demonstrating how out of touch he is with the people standing to fight him. He is selfish and ready to kill anyone who stands in his way. This quote has a much sicker and deeper meaning than its face value.

"I Fashioned Myself A New Name, A Name I Knew Wizards Everywhere Would One Day Fear To Speak When I Had Become The Greatest Sorcerer In The World."

  • Riddle Discarding His Previous Name To Adopt One Unsullied By Muggles

This line was delivered by the memory of a young Tom Riddle to Harry Potter. Riddle was explaining how he hated his birth name because of its connection to his Muggle parentage. He was determined to shed all things Muggle and be recognized for his magic.

It's an excellent summary of his childhood in one quote. He is ambitious and driven. Both of these qualities can be wonderful, but his hatred drove him to evil deeds and not wanting to be known by anything that wasn't connected to wizardry.

"And You Will Lose. Everything."

Harry potter and the order of the phoenix.

  • A chilling threat to Harry when he encounters the Dark Lord in the Department of Mysteries

Voldemort delivers this line to Harry Potter during their battle in the Department of Mysteries in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix . Voldemort has invaded Harry's mind and is trying to sway him to the dark side, but Harry refuses. This causes Voldemort to tell him that he will lose not just the battle but his friends, as well.

This is a nice bit of foreshadowing because Voldemort doesn't understand why Harry wouldn't join him in chasing power. Voldemort's dismissal of love and friends wound up being his undoing.

"Come Out, Harry, Come Out And Play, Then It Will Be Quick. It Might Even Be Painless, I Would Not Know, I Have Never Died."

  • A cocky Voldemort taunting Harry in the Department of Mysteries

In another quote from Voldemort's battle with Harry in the Department of Mysteries, Voldemort is trying to goad Harry into a fight that Harry simply isn't ready for. Voldemort is trying to sell Harry on the concept of death while trying to murder him. It's quite eerie.

It also points to Voldemort's greatest fear. Voldemort fears death because it's something that Muggles would do. This line foreshadows the introduction of horcruxes in the next book and the ultimate climax of the story.

"Welcome, My Friends. Thirteen Years It's Been, And Yet, Here You Stand Before Me, As Though It Were Only Yesterday. I Confess Myself... Disappointed. Not One Of You Tried To Find Me."

  • Showing disdain towards the Death Eaters who did not aid him after his supposed demise

Voldemort would attack his followers with his words almost as much as his enemies, if not more. When he returned and several Death Eaters returned to his side, he was quick to point out how he wasn't excited to see them but disappointed.

Harry Potter: 12 Things You Didn't Know About Lord Voldemort

He calls out their cowardice for refusing to look for him, instead deciding to lie about their intentions and keep their comfy, cozy, and cushy lifestyles. He delivers it in a delightfully creepy manner where the reader, or viewer, feels the Death Eaters' fear as they realize they are once again pawns in his quest.

"Out Of Fear, Not Loyalty."

  • Dismissing the intentions of the one man who made a conscious effort to bring him back to life

Another instance of Voldemort attacking his followers comes when he delivers this line to Peter Pettigrew when Pettigrew mentions he returned to Voldemort's side before any of the other Death Eaters .

While Voldemort was happy to use Pettigrew's assistance, he knew that Pettigrew wouldn't have returned if he could've stayed in his cozy position as a rat with the Weasleys. Pettigrew wasn't demonstrating loyalty to Voldemort. His hiding spot had been compromised, and he had nowhere else to go.

"I Want You To Look At Me When I Kill You."

  • One of Voldemort's many taunts to Harry

This line captures just how evil Voldemort can be. He has restored his body and is ready to kill the Boy Who Lived, but he has to be a showman while he does it. He wants Harry to look at him as he prepares to kill him.

He tries to coerce Harry to fight him in a typical dueling manner rather than kill Harry while Harry is running for his life and hiding to protect himself. It sets up the Priori Incantatem moment that inspires Voldemort's actions in later films.

"Master The Wand, And I Master Potter At Last."

  • His pursuit to master the Elder Wand, which ultimately led to his undoing

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , Voldemort realizes that the shared cores between his and Harry's wands are preventing him from killing Harry. He has now decided to pursue the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand in wizard lore, believing that if he can master its power, he can finally beat Harry.

Harry Potter: Weakest Death Eaters

This line proves to be the ultimate irony because it's Voldemort's use of the Elder Wand that becomes his undoing. Ollivander has pointed out that "the wand chooses the wizard," and the Elder Wand had been loyal to Dumbledore until he was disarmed by Draco Malfoy. Malfoy would be disarmed by Potter, meaning that Potter had been the master of the Elder Wand while Voldemort owned it.

"Greatness Inspires Envy, Envy Engenders Spite, Spite Spawns Lies."

  • A statement that convinced Dumbledore that Voldemort wasn't fit to become the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor

This one line from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince perfectly demonstrates Voldemort's charisma and how delusional he is. He says this line to Dumbledore when interviewing for the Defense Against the Dark Arts job. He is trying to demonstrate that many of the negative comments about his actions are from people jealous of him.

Of course, Dumbledore doesn't see Voldemort's actions as "great" but evil. Dumbledore isn't envious of Voldemort but sad for him. This perfectly demonstrates Voldemort's delusion because he is convinced his pushing of magical boundaries is "greatness."

"Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived, Come To Die. Avada Kedavra!"

  • A fateful line said moments before Harry's supposed demise

Voldemort may be legitimately frightening, but this line elicits more than just fear from readers and viewers; it elicits sadness. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows , Harry has arrived ready to die to save everyone else. He may have lived 17 years prior, but this time, he was ready to sacrifice himself.

Voldemort is feeling victorious. He thinks he has finally vanquished his greatest foe, but it ends up being the worst decision he can make. Still, his acknowledgment of Harry before sending a killing curse his way can bring a tear to any Potter fan's eye.

"There Is No Good And Evil. There Is Only Power And Those Too Weak To Seek It."

Harry potter and the sorcerer's stone.

  • The first time fans get to see just how evil Lord Voldemort is

This is the perfect quote to sum up all of Lord Voldemort's motivations, and it comes from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone . He is ambitious and cutthroat because he wants power. He doesn't view things through a moral lens, and that's why he has no issue attacking and killing anyone who stands in his way.

As mentioned previously, it is his lust for power that becomes his undoing. He doesn't want someone with the power to stop him from living, so he tries to kill the Potters, only for Harry to survive. He wants the most powerful wand, so he steals it from Dumbledore's grave only for it to be loyal to Potter. He never learns his lesson about the power of love and never learns that he is showing true weakness.

Every Harry Potter Book, Ranked

Best Voldemort Quotes in Harry Potter

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First-edition ‘Harry Potter’ book up for auction after it was anonymously donated to local pet charity

The england rspca location received a copy of the book anonymously.

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A rare first edition of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone" will go up for auction — and could sell for thousands of dollars. 

The RSPCA Isle of Wight branch in Godshill, England, received the book as an anonymous gift and took it to Hansons Auctioneers for an appraisal. 

RSPCA marketing and engagement officer Rebecca Busby told Hansons Auctioneers the book was a shocking gift.

RARE, 1ST EDITION ‘HARRY POTTER’ BOOK GOES UP FOR PRIVATE SALE AT CHRISTIE'S

"One of our volunteers, who is an avid Harry Potter fan and book enthusiast, checked for all the well-known markers and noticed this book had them all," she said. 

Hansons Auctioneers confirmed the book was a first edition of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone."

Harry Potter book cover

The first-edition "Harry Potter" book was anonymously dropped off at a local pet charity in England.  (Hansons Auctioneers / Fox News)

Now, the rare book will go up for auction, with Busby noting that the proceeds will go to the pet charity, which currently has over 50 pets in its care. 

CAFE WHERE J.K. ROWLING WROTE ‘HARRY POTTER’ SERIES TO REOPEN NEARLY 3 YEARS AFTER DEVASTATING FIRE

"All funds raised from the sale of this book will directly go toward helping animals in our care now and in the future," she said to Hansons. 

Inside cover of Harry Potter book

Hansons Auctioneers is auctioning off a rare first edition "Harry Potter" book.  (Hansons Auctioneers / Fox News)

Starting on Feb. 26, anyone interested in purchasing the book can enter their bid at Hansons Auctioneers’ Library Auction. 

The paperback book is estimated to sell for between $7,000 and $11,000. 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, JULY 31, 1965, ‘HARRY POTTER’ CREATOR J.K. ROWLING IS BORN

Busby noted that one of the dogs that will benefit from the auction sale includes an 11-month-old cockatoo named Harry. 

"We are sure Harry will help his namesake, Harry the dog, find his magical home and enjoy an amazing new chapter in his life," she said. 

Harry Potter Philosopher's Stone

The back cover of a rare first-edition "Harry Potter" book.  (Hansons Auctioneers / Fox News)

This, however, is not the first of its kind to go up for auction. 

In 2022, a hardback edition of the book had initial offers of $250,000 in a Christie’s auction. 

Since then, other versions of the book have come with various price tags depending on the quality of the copy.

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Hansons Auctioneers book expert Jim Spencer said in a press release that this particular book now up for auction is in "exceptional" condition. 

Harry Potter book

Hansons Auctioneers is auctioning off a first-edition "Harry Potter" book after it was anonymously donated to a local pet charity.  (Hansons Auctioneers / Fox News)

"The only minor flaws are a couple of lightly folded corners, and the usual light browning [on] page edges, which is in fact a reassuring sign due to the cheap paper that was used," he said. 

He continued, "It should appeal to collectors all over the world, and the lucky buyer can be doubly happy in the knowledge money raised will help animals like Harry."

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTER

For more information on how to bid on the unique item, visit hansonslive.co.uk. 

For more Lifestyle articles, visit foxbusiness.com/lifestyle .

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