READING QUOTES VI

quotations about reading

The sagacious reader who is capable of reading between these lines what does not stand written in them, but is nevertheless implied, will be able to form some conception.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

Autobiography

Tags: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


The man who does not read ... has no advantage over the man who can't read.

MARK TWAIN

attributed, The Wit & Wisdom of Mark Twain

Tags: Mark Twain


A good reader is nearly as rare as a good writer. People bring their prejudices, whether friendly or adverse. They are lamp and spectacles, lighting and magnifying the page.

ROBERT ELDRIDGE ARIS WILLMOTT

Pleasures, Objects and Advantages of Literature


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

Tags: Anne Lamott


By reading we acquaint ourselves in a very extensive manner with the affairs, actions, and thoughts of the living and the dead, in the most remote nations and in the most distant ages; and that with as much ease as though they lived in our own age and nation.

ISAAC WATTS

The Improvement of the Mind


The whole point of straws, I had thought, was that you did not have to set down the slice of pizza to suck a dose of Coke while reading a paperback.

NICHOLSON BAKER

The Mezzanine

Tags: Nicholson Baker


We read for instruction, for correction, and for consolation.

QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN

attributed, Day's Collacon


There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island ... and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.

WALT DISNEY

attributed, The Miracle of Language

Tags: Walt Disney


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

JOHN LOCKE

A Treatise on the Conduct of the Understanding

Tags: John Locke


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

LADY W. M. MONTAGUE

attributed, Day's Collacon


Why can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?

DAVID BALDACCI

The Camel Club

Tags: David Baldacci


When, after having read a work, loftier thoughts arise in your mind and noble and heartfelt feelings animate you, do not look for any other rule to judge it by; it is fine and written in a masterly manner.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères

Tags: Jean de La Bruyère


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

I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

Tags: Nora Ephron


To read is to enter an intercourse with a text.

VARUN BEGLEY

"The Unbearable Freud"


And better had they ne'er been born,
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

WALTER SCOTT

The Monastery

Tags: Walter Scott


It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.

JOHANNES KEPLER

attributed, The Martyrs of Science


Sound and healthy reading will develop and enkindle the soul, enlighten the mind, and vivify and direct the imagination.

LOUISE SWANTON BELLOC

attributed, Day's Collacon


If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

OSCAR WILDE

The Decay of Lying

Tags: Oscar Wilde


A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.

ITALO CALVINO

The Uses of Literature

Tags: Italo Calvino


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

RAY BRADBURY

attributed, Book Savvy

Tags: Ray Bradbury