“ The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. ”
“ Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. ”
“ Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ”
Groucho Marx , The Essential Groucho: Writings For By And About Groucho Marx
“ Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. ”
“ I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. ”
“ What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though. ”
“ It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it. ”
“ One must always be careful of books," said Tessa, "and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us. ”
“ If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it. ”
“ I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. ”
“ Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back. ”
“ You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children. ”
“ The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame. ”
“ ... a mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge. ”
“ I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited. ”
“ Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry. ”
“ Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. ”
“ A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading. ”
“ A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest. ”
“ Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. ”
“ In a good bookroom you feel in some mysterious way that you are absorbing the wisdom contained in all the books through your skin, without even opening them. ”
“ Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn't carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life. ”
“ When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. ”
“ You get a little moody sometimes but I think that's because you like to read. People that like to read are always a little fucked up. ”
“ Books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like a betrayal. ”
“ There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it. ”
“ You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive. ”
“ I spent my life folded between the pages of books.
In the absence of human relationships I formed bonds with paper characters. I lived love and loss through stories threaded in history; I experienced adolescence by association. My world is one interwoven web of words, stringing limb to limb, bone to sinew, thoughts and images all together. I am a being comprised of letters, a character created by sentences, a figment of imagination formed through fiction. ”
“ Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. ”
“ Reader's Bill of Rights
1. The right to not read
2. The right to skip pages
3. The right to not finish
4. The right to reread
5. The right to read anything
6. The right to escapism
7. The right to read anywhere
8. The right to browse
9. The right to read out loud
10. The right to not defend your tastes ”
“ That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet. ”
“ Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. ”
