24 English quotes

Quotes about reading & books

Quotes about books, reading and writing from authors who loved them.

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
– Often attributed to Cicero
Meaning: Books give a home its life and character. Without them, a room feels empty, like a body with no spirit inside.
“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 (2011)
Meaning: Through books you can experience many other people's lives, places and adventures. Someone who never reads only knows their own life.
“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! (1978)
Meaning: Reading gives you knowledge, and knowledge opens up opportunities in life.
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
– Stephen King, On Writing (2000)
Meaning: A book can take you to another world anywhere, and you can carry it with you wherever you go.
uniquely
– in a way that nothing else is
portable
– easy to carry
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
– Francis Bacon, "Of Studies", Essays (1625)
Meaning: Different books need different kinds of reading: some you only sample, some you read quickly, and a few you should read slowly and think about deeply.
digested
– (of food) broken down by the body; (of ideas) fully understood
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
– Joseph Addison, The Tatler (1710)
Meaning: Just as exercise keeps your body strong and healthy, reading keeps your mind active and sharp.
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
– Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)
Meaning: Scout reads so naturally that she never thought about loving it, just as you don't "love" breathing. Only when she might lose it does she see how much it matters.
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
– Jorge Luis Borges
Meaning: For a book lover, the most perfect place imaginable would be full of books.
Paradise
– heaven; a perfect place
“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
– Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891)
Meaning: Wilde argues that a book should be judged as art, by the quality of its writing, not by whether its story is good or bad behaviour.
immoral
– wrong or wicked by normal standards of behaviour
“Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.”
– Often attributed to Groucho Marx
Meaning: A joke built on two meanings of "outside of". First it means "apart from" (a book is the best friend after a dog), then it is taken literally: you can't read inside a dog.
“If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”
– Stephen King, On Writing (2000)
Meaning: Reading is how writers learn their craft. If you want to write well, you must read a lot.
“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.”
– Toni Morrison
Meaning: If the story you need doesn't exist, don't wait for someone else: create it yourself.
“The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.”
– Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey (1817)
Meaning: A playful defence of novels, said by the hero Henry Tilney: anyone who can't enjoy a good story must be very dull.
intolerably
– so much that it is hard to accept
“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading!”
– Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
Meaning: Nothing is as pleasant as reading. In the novel the line is ironic: Caroline Bingley says it only to impress Mr Darcy, and soon gets bored of her book.
I declare
– an old-fashioned way to say "I really think" or show surprise
“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, The Happy Life (1896)
Meaning: Books are always there for you. They give advice whenever you need it and never get tired of teaching you.
constant
– always there; loyal
counselors
– people who give advice
“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.”
– Franz Kafka, Letter to Oskar Pollak (1904)
Meaning: The best books shake us and break through our numb, everyday feelings, the way an axe breaks ice.
“I cannot live without books.”
– Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams (1815)
Meaning: For some people, reading is not a hobby but a need, as important as food and sleep.
“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.”
– Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind (2001)
Meaning: Each reader finds something different in the same book, because we understand stories through our own feelings and experiences.
“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, Coraline (2002)
Meaning: Fairy tales are not about real monsters. They teach us that problems and fears, our "dragons", can be defeated.
“'Classic.' A book which people praise and don't read.”
– Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897)
Meaning: A joke definition: a "classic" is a famous book that everyone says is great, but few people actually read.
praise
– say good things about
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
– Often attributed to C. S. Lewis
Meaning: Lewis loved reading (and tea) so much that he never wanted a good book to end.
suit
– be right for; please
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
– Lemony Snicket, Horseradish (2007)
Meaning: A playful rule: people who always carry something to read are curious and thoughtful, so you can rely on them.
“Literature is my Utopia.”
– Helen Keller, The Story of My Life (1903)
Meaning: Keller, who was deaf and blind, found a perfect world in books, where her disabilities did not stop her from meeting people and ideas.
Utopia
– an imagined perfect place
“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”
– Often attributed to Desiderius Erasmus
Meaning: A humorous way to show how much he loved books: they come first, and even food and clothes come second.