BOOK QUOTES VIII

quotations about books

The greatest book is not the one whose message engraves itself on the brain, as a telegraphic message engraves itself on the ticker-tape, but the one whose vital impact opens up other viewpoints, and from writer to reader spreads the fire that is fed by the various essences, until it becomes a vast conflagration leaping from forest to forest.

ROMAIN ROLLAND

Journey Within


The world has been printing books for 450 years, and yet gunpowder still has a wider circulation. Never mind! Printer's ink is the greater explosive: it will win.

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY

The Haunted Bookshop


If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

HARUKI MURAKAMI

Norwegian Wood


Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation.

W. H. AUDEN

The Complete Works of W. H. Auden


The greatest advantage of books does not always come from what we remember of them, but from their suggestiveness. A good book often serves as a match to light the dormant power within us.

ORISON SWETT MARDEN

Architects of Fate


There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.

CHARLES DICKENS

Oliver Twist


The sincere love of books has nothing to do with cleverness or stupidity any more than any other sincere love. It is a quality of character, a freshness, a power of pleasure, a power of faith. A silly person may delight in reading masterpieces just as a silly person may delight in picking flowers. A fool may be in love with a poet as he may be in love with a woman.

G. K. CHESTERTON

"A Midsummer Night's Dream," , On Lying in Bed and Other Essays


No two persons ever read the same book, or saw the same picture.

MADAME SWETCHINE

"Airelles,", The Writings of Madame Swetchine


For out of old fields, as men saith,
Cometh all this new corn from year to year;
And out of old books, in good faith,
Cometh all this new science that men learn.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

"Parliament of Foules"


A book is a garden; a book is an orchard; a book is a storehouse; a book is a party. It is company by the way; it is a counselor; it is a multitude of counselors.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit


I want to do something splendid ... something heroic or wonderful that won't be forgotten after I'm dead ... I think I shall write books.

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT

Little Women


It is only a novel ... or, in short, only some work in which the greatest powers of the mind are displayed, in which the most thorough knowledge of human nature, the happiest delineation of its varieties, the liveliest effusions of wit and humour, are conveyed to the world in the best-chosen language.

JANE AUSTEN

Northanger Abbey


It is with books as with new acquaintances. At first we are highly delighted, if we find a general agreement--if we are pleasantly moved on any of the chief sides of our existence. With a closer acquaintance differences come to light; and then reasonable conduct mainly consists in not shrinking back at once, as may happen in youth, but in keeping firm hold of the things in which we agree, and being quite clear about the things in which we differ, without on that account desiring any union.

JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe


Parents should leave books lying around marked "forbidden" if they want their children to read.

DORIS LESSING

The Times, Nov. 23, 2003


If you want to read a perfect book there is only one way: write it.

AMBROSE BIERCE

"Epigrams of a Cynic"


I am sure everyone has had the experience of reading a book and finding it vibrating with aliveness, with colour and immediacy. And then, perhaps some weeks later, reading it again and finding it flat and empty. Well, the book hasn't changed: you have.

DORIS LESSING

Time Bites


Books of quick interest, that hurry on for incidents are for the eye to glide over only. It will not do to read them out. I could never listen to even the better kind of modern novels without extreme irksomeness.

CHARLES LAMB

"On Books and Reading", The Last Essays of Elia


The prosperity of a book lies in the minds of readers. Public knowledge and public taste fluctuate; and there come times when works which were once capable of instructing and delighting thousands lose their power, and works, before neglected, emerge into renown.

GEORGE HENRY LEWES

The Principles of Success in Literature


A library is like an island in the middle of a vast sea of ignorance, particularly if the library is very tall and the surrounding area has been flooded.

DANIEL HANDLER (as Lemony Snicket)

Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid


Are not good books honey-comb from the bee-hives of industry, handed down to us to sweeten our lives and help us aim to higher attainments of happiness? Are not good books white-winged messengers of love and good cheer, coming out of the past to cheer and strengthen us for the duties and responsibilities of life? Are not good books the golden settings of gems of truth and diamonds of knowledge prepared for our diadems of rejoicing and crowns of victory? Are not good books so many angel gifts sent to sweeten the bitterness of human life?

NICIAS BALLARD COOKSEY

Helps to Happiness