READING QUOTES IV

quotations about reading

Reading quote

To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

EDMUND BURKE

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Edmund Burke


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.

JOHN GREEN

The Fault in Our Stars

Tags: John Green


Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.

ANONYMOUS


If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.

STEPHEN KING

On Writing

Tags: Stephen King


There are some who say that sitting at home reading is the equivalent of travel, because the experiences described in the book are more or less the same as the experiences one might have on a voyage, and there are those who say that there is no substitute for venturing out into the world. My own opinion is that it is best to travel extensively but to read the entire time, hardly glancing up to look out of the window of the airplane, train, or hired camel.

DANIEL HANDLER

as Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

Tags: Daniel Handler


Reading a book is a dangerous thing, Justine. A book can make you find room in yourself for something you never thought you'd understand. Or worse, something you never wanted to understand.

GLEN DUNCAN

By Blood We Live

Tags: Glen Duncan


Learn to read slow; all other graces
Will follow in their proper places.

WILLIAM WALKER

Art of Reading


A book is a gift you can open again and again.

GARRISON KEILLOR

attributed, The Miracle of Language

Tags: Garrison Keillor


To read merely for reading's sake is almost as unprofitable as not reading at all. Setting out, in the first place with a clear idea of what we wish to learn, which is eminently important, we must afterwards, if we would realize what we have read, reperuse it in thought. This only makes it truly our own.

LEO HARTLEY GRINDON

Life: Its Nature, Varieties, and Phenomena


The best moments in reading are when you come across something -- a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things -- which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.

ALAN BENNETT

The History Boys

Tags: Arnold Bennett


Reading makes a full Man, Meditation a profound Man, Discourse a clear Man.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

Poor Richard's Almanac

Tags: Benjamin Franklin


People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

LOGAN PEARSALL SMITH

Afterthoughts

Tags: Logan Pearsall Smith


Love of reading enables a man to exchange the wearisome hours of life which come to every one, for hours of delight.

MONTESQUIEU

attributed, Day's Collacon

Tags: Montesquieu


In reality, people read because they want to write. Anyway, reading is a sort of rewriting.

JEAN-PAUL SARTRE

interview, Les Ecrivains en Personne, 1959

Tags: Jean Paul Sartre


If we encountered a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he read.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Letters and Social Aims

Tags: Ralph Waldo Emerson


I will read anything rather than work.

JEAN KERR

introduction, Please Don't Eat the Daisies

Tags: Jean Kerr


I tend to believe that computers are drawing kids -- and adults -- away from reading purely because they provide an alternative, vast source of spare-time amusement and entertainment. I recently heard a frightening statistic: there are less than one million true readers in this country (those who read every day instead of one book per year on a beach). Terrifying.

TIM LEBBON

interview, Infinity Plus

Tags: Tim Lebbon


As addictions go, reading is among the cleanest, easiest to feed, happiest.

JOSEPH EPSTEIN

attributed, The Miracle of Language

Tags: Joseph Epstein


Accurate reading on a wide range of subjects makes the scholar; careful selection of the better makes the saint.

JOHN OF SALISBURY

The Statesman's Book of John of Salisbury


We have not read an author till we have seen his object, whatever it may be, as he saw it.

THOMAS CARLYLE

Essays