Quotes About Books
This is pretty much just what the Subject says. I found a bunch of quotes about books today. I didn't think all of them would make good prompts, but I loved them so much that I wanted to share them. I made a few comments, but not many.
It's a long list, here they are:
"A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy." ~Edward P. Morgan
"The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it." ~James Bryce
"If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." ~Toni Morrison
"A good book has no ending." ~R.D. Cumming
I think is a motto of ficcers everywhere. The Harry Potter Fandom exemplifies this quote. The series may be over, but the story goes on.
"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991
This is a primary concern of mine when setting up a home. But to be honest, there are never enough bookshelves.
"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." ~P.J. O'Rourke
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." ~Attributed to Groucho Marx
"A dirty book is rarely dusty." ~Author Unknown
"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
"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." ~Oscar Wilde
"Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures." ~Jessamyn West
"To choose a good book, look in an inquisitor’s prohibited list." ~John Aikin
"If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into what you believe? The things most worth reading are precisely those that challenge our convictions." ~Author Unknown
"When you reread a classic you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than was there before." ~Clifton Fadiman
"These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice... and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space, and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart." ~Gilbert Highet
'"Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.' ~François Mauriac
"If you have never said "Excuse me" to a parking meter or bashed your shins on a fireplug, you are probably wasting too much valuable reading time." ~Sherri Chasin Calvo
I used to walk into things repeatedly when I was a kid. It takes a lot of skill to learn to walk around with your nose in a book without walking into every obstacle around. I loved reading as a kid, it's why I loved Belle from Disney so much.
"The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its disasters." ~Ross MacDonald
"The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them." ~Samuel Butler
"A house without books is like a room without windows." ~Heinrich Mann
"Most books, like their authors, are born to die; of only a few books can it be said that death hath no dominion over them; they live, and their influence lives forever." ~J. Swartz
"Never judge a book by its movie." ~J.W. Eagan
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 (Thanks, Laurel)
This is why I love reading to my son. It's filling me with joy that he's starting to read on his own now.
"An ordinary man can... surround himself with two thousand books... and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy." ~Augustine Birrell
"Books are a uniquely portable magic." ~Stephen King
"Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book! A message to us from the dead, - from human souls whom we never saw, who lived perhaps thousands of miles away; and yet these, on those little sheets of paper, speak to us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers." ~Charles Kingsley
"Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me." ~Anatole France
This doesn't describe my library, but it cracked me up! Especially Role-Playing Books, so many people borrow those and you never see them again.
"Books are immortal sons deifying their sires." ~Plato
"God be thanked for books! they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages." ~W.E. Channing
"A blessed companion is a book, - a book that, fitly chosen, is a lifelong friend,... a book that, at a touch, pours its heart into our own." ~Douglas Jerrold
"Reading - the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay." ~William Styron
'A large, still book is a piece of quietness, succulent and nourishing in a noisy world, which I approach and imbibe with "a sort of greedy enjoyment," as Marcel Proust said of those rooms of his old home whose air was "saturated with the bouquet of silence."' ~Holbrook Jackson
"'Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakenly meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude, 1870
"One of the advantages of reading books is that you get to play with someone else's imaginary friends, at all hours of the night." ~Dr. SunWolf
It's a long list, here they are:
"A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy." ~Edward P. Morgan
"The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it." ~James Bryce
"If there's a book you really want to read but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." ~Toni Morrison
"A good book has no ending." ~R.D. Cumming
I think is a motto of ficcers everywhere. The Harry Potter Fandom exemplifies this quote. The series may be over, but the story goes on.
"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves." ~Anna Quindlen, "Enough Bookshelves," New York Times, 7 August 1991
This is a primary concern of mine when setting up a home. But to be honest, there are never enough bookshelves.
"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." ~P.J. O'Rourke
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." ~Attributed to Groucho Marx
"A dirty book is rarely dusty." ~Author Unknown
"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
"It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it." ~Oscar Wilde
"Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures." ~Jessamyn West
"To choose a good book, look in an inquisitor’s prohibited list." ~John Aikin
"If you resist reading what you disagree with, how will you ever acquire deeper insights into what you believe? The things most worth reading are precisely those that challenge our convictions." ~Author Unknown
"When you reread a classic you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than was there before." ~Clifton Fadiman
"These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice... and just as the touch of a button on our set will fill the room with music, so by taking down one of these volumes and opening it, one can call into range the voice of a man far distant in time and space, and hear him speaking to us, mind to mind, heart to heart." ~Gilbert Highet
'"Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.' ~François Mauriac
"If you have never said "Excuse me" to a parking meter or bashed your shins on a fireplug, you are probably wasting too much valuable reading time." ~Sherri Chasin Calvo
I used to walk into things repeatedly when I was a kid. It takes a lot of skill to learn to walk around with your nose in a book without walking into every obstacle around. I loved reading as a kid, it's why I loved Belle from Disney so much.
"The walls of books around him, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its disasters." ~Ross MacDonald
"The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them." ~Samuel Butler
"A house without books is like a room without windows." ~Heinrich Mann
"Most books, like their authors, are born to die; of only a few books can it be said that death hath no dominion over them; they live, and their influence lives forever." ~J. Swartz
"Never judge a book by its movie." ~J.W. Eagan
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 (Thanks, Laurel)
This is why I love reading to my son. It's filling me with joy that he's starting to read on his own now.
"An ordinary man can... surround himself with two thousand books... and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy." ~Augustine Birrell
"Books are a uniquely portable magic." ~Stephen King
"Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book! A message to us from the dead, - from human souls whom we never saw, who lived perhaps thousands of miles away; and yet these, on those little sheets of paper, speak to us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers." ~Charles Kingsley
"Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folks have lent me." ~Anatole France
This doesn't describe my library, but it cracked me up! Especially Role-Playing Books, so many people borrow those and you never see them again.
"Books are immortal sons deifying their sires." ~Plato
"God be thanked for books! they are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages." ~W.E. Channing
"A blessed companion is a book, - a book that, fitly chosen, is a lifelong friend,... a book that, at a touch, pours its heart into our own." ~Douglas Jerrold
"Reading - the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay." ~William Styron
'A large, still book is a piece of quietness, succulent and nourishing in a noisy world, which I approach and imbibe with "a sort of greedy enjoyment," as Marcel Proust said of those rooms of his old home whose air was "saturated with the bouquet of silence."' ~Holbrook Jackson
"'Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakenly meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude, 1870
"One of the advantages of reading books is that you get to play with someone else's imaginary friends, at all hours of the night." ~Dr. SunWolf