Great Quotes About Books and Reading

"Reading maketh a full man." (or woman!!) Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

"To write and read comes by nature." William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

"Who often reads will sometimes wish to write." Rev. George Crabbe (1754-1832)

"Un livre est un ami qui ne trompe jamais." A book is a friend that never deceives us. Guilbert de Pixerecourt

"Distrahit animum librorum multitudo." A crowd of books distracts the mind. Seneca

"A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever." Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810-1889)

"The love of books, the golden key that opens up the enchanted door." Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

"Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know, are a substantial world, both pure and good." William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

"Tout abbrege sur un bon livre est un sot abbrege." Every abridgment of a good book is a stupid abridgment. Montaigne

"A book that is shut is but a block." German Proverb

"Books and friends should be few and good." Spanish Proverb

"'Tis the good reader that makes the good book." Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

"Otium sine literus mors est." Leisure without books is death. Seneca

"May I a small house and a large garden have! And a few friends and many books." Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

"I love everything that is old; old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine." Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)

"There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written." Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

"People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading." Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946)

"Yes - oh dear yes - the novel tells a story." E.M Forester (1879-1970)

"There is first the literature of knowledge, and secondly, the literature of power." Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859)

"Literature flourishes best when it is half a trade and half an art." Dean Inge (1860-1954)

"Wear the old coat and buy the new book." Austin Phelps

"I must say that I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book." Groucho Marx