Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

English Italiano Polski עברית Français Português فارسی Español 中文 Русский Deutsch العربية हिन्दी 日本語 Ελληνικά Latina

Books and reading

Love Friendship Happiness Hope Fear Courage Death Life Time War Peace Freedom Truth Wisdom Knowledge Science Art Music Nature Money Work Power God Beauty Laughter Family Success and failure Change Dreams Books and reading

“I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life. "10 Brilliant Quotes From Warren Buffett, America's Second-Richest Person " entrepreneur.com (13 November 2014)”
Warren Buffett (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...Lately I have been re-reading Spinoza (much read and little understood in my youth). But that noblest of Jews must have planted no end of germs in my brains, for I see that what I have to say is in principle what he had to say, in modern language.”
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) said by 1677 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Thomas Henry Huxley, in his letter, 31 August 1894. Originally published in Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley (London: Macmillan & Co., 1913)
“Forbidden to write anything critical of the Fascist regime, they could only report what the hierarchy wanted them to report. The clever and honest American and British journalists, however, did insinuate startling facts in their stories; these insinuations, unfortunately, were between the lines and not for those who read as they run, and the American public is mostly a running reading public.”
George Seldes (1890–1995) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Can These Things Be! (1931)
“I read Goodman and Kropotkin and Emma and the rest, and finally found a politics I liked. But then I had to integrate these political ideas, which I'd formulated over a good year's reading, into a novel, a utopia. The whole process took quite a while, as you might imagine, and there were hundreds of little details that never found their way into the novel.”
Paul Goodman (1911–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1982 interview in Conversations with Ursula Le Guin
“To Anthony life was a struggle against death, that waited at every corner. It was as a concession to his hypochondriacal imagination that he formed the habit of reading in bed — it soothed him. He read until he was tired and often fell asleep with the lights still on.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sitting there beside the bookcase, trying to read, in a growing panic of self-consciousness. Why? Because reading presupposed a future.”
Martin Amis (1949–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Education] has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.”
G. M. Trevelyan (1876–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I began writing science fiction, when I began reading, heck, I wasn't in any of this stuff I read. The only black people you found were occasional characters or characters who were so feeble-witted that they couldn't manage anything, any way. I wrote myself in, since I'm me and I'm here and I'm writing.”
Octavia Butler (1947–2006) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: in New York Times (2000). Attributed in Conversations with Octavia Butler (2009)
“How did you know we were Voorstoders?” he asked in a silken voice. “You said ‘Lord knows,’” the man replied. “Voorstoders say that. I do a bit of reading in the Archives, bit of a hobby with me. Like to read about those old religions. That Lord-this, Lord-that kind of talk belongs to the old tribal religions, doesn’t it?” Old and outworn, said his voice. Old and outworn and suspect.”
Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When one read’s Kierkegaard’s profound analyses of anxiety and despair or Nietzsche’s amazingly acute insights into the dynamics of resentment and the guilt and hostility which accompany repressed emotional powers, one might pinch oneself to realize that one is reading works written in the last century and not some new contemporary psychological analysis.”
Rollo May (1909–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since there is no such thing as complete knowledge of a subject, one is always working to improve one's reading, writing, etc., of a subject. As Thomas Henry Huxley said, "If a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, is there anyone who knows so much as to be out of danger?"...The problems of learning to read or write are inexhaustible.”
Neil Postman (1931–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Whatever it says in the bible the truth remains. You can read the bible and dismiss it as nonsense if you like; you can dismiss it as nonsense without reading it to save time if you prefer.”
Simon Munnery (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is hardly surprising that children should enthusiastically start their education at an early age with the Absolute Knowledge of computer science; while they are unable to read, for reading demands making judgments at every line.... Conversation is almost dead, and soon so too will be those who knew how to speak.”
Guy Debord (1931–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I know one husband and wife who, whatever the official reasons given to the court for the break up of their marriage, were really divorced because the husband believed that nobody ought to read while he was talking and the wife that nobody ought to talk while she was reading.”
Vera Brittain (1893–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in Jilly Cooper and Tom Hartman, Violets and Vinegar, "The Battle Done," (1980)
“Augustine's description of Ambrose's silent reading (including the remark that he never read aloud) is the first definite instance recorded in Western literature.”
Alberto Manguel (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As Roland Barthes said, those who do not re-read condemn themselves to reading the same story everywhere: "they recognize what they already think and know.”
Bernard Williams (1929–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Half the time I read Hayek's The Sensory Order with amazement at the extent of his reading and comprehension … he is right … most of the time.”
Edwin Boring (1886–1968) first seen 1953 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Edwin Boring, "Elementist Going Up", The Scientific Monthly (March 1953), p. 183
“The passage he was to read was from Revelations — or Obfuscations, as he preferred to call them. Reading it over on the train from Cambridge, he had felt a strange desire to build a time machine so that he could take the author a copy of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason.”
Edward St. Aubyn (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I delay typing as long as possible. When I read a poem in longhand I'm hearing it, when in typescript I'm reading it. A poem can appear finished just because of the cleanness of the typescript.”
Mark Strand (1934–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Prior to any generalization about literature, literary texts have to be read, and the possibility of reading can never be taken for granted. It is an act of understanding that can never be observed, nor in any way prescribed or verified.”
Paul de Man (1919–1983) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Blindness and Insight: Essays in the Rhetoric of Contemporary Criticism, Oxford University Press. 1971 p. 107.
“I don’t know how long I sat there reading about it, but at some point I’d read enough. I leaned back and stared at the ceiling. I suppose I was in shock, but whether it was the shock of learning about something horrific, or the shock of learning about my own ignorance, I’m not sure.”
Tara Westover (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One is that I’m the first reader, and so I’m always writing these poems to myself, and my self — my self as a reader — is someone who wants to be transformed in the process of reading poems. I don’t want to read a poem that I already know.”
Ross Gay (born 1974) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the role of the reader in “The Terrible and the Possible: An Interview with Ross Gay” in Los Angeles Review of Books (2016 Nov 11)
“The web is totally broken. It's not symmetric.Easy to read stuff, very difficult to write stuff. We ave a community of users who engage passively by reading stuff, they do not write stuff.”
Joe Armstrong (programmer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like to read a lot. I like the printed word. I find that structure–of words and sentences and paragraphs and chapters–a very good structure for writing music. Music also has a very linear quality on the page, of those five parallel lines and the bar structure of music. I start on projects always by reading.”
Howard Shore (born 1946) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Brilliant Composer Howard Shore (February 16, 2005)
“My favorite author is Chuck Palahniuk. I’d never been a big reader, often going long stretches without reading. Then I read Fight Club (novel).”
Jason Tanamor (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From the get go, it was a beautiful script, so I didn’t object to anything. First we had the first draft which we did a reading for. You know when you read a story; it’s one writer, maximum two or three writers.”
Chioma Akpotha (born 1980) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Her thought when she saw the script for the film, Lara and the Beats (June 2018)
“People no longer read. I wonder how they live without reading.”
Mabel Segun (1930–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don't read what everyone else is reading. Check them out later, cautiously.”
Ben Okri (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have no idea what “the reader” wants or who they are; I’ve always drawn the strip that I would like to read and then hoped that someone else would find it worth reading, too.”
Liniers (cartoonist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Reading a map' in the Middle Ages could mean scanning great blocks of written matter, describing geographical, anthropological, and historical features. The Hereford map asks for the prayers of all those who 'see, read, hear or possess' it.”
Evelyn Edson (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I said I will also read news when I grow up but I will do it in Twi, and everybody in the living room burst out laughing. My dad asked me if I had ever seen anyone reading in Twi on radio or TV. I closed the chapter because indeed in those days, there were just a few Akan-speaking FM stations, unlike today.”
Nana Anima Wiafe-Akenten wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I like reading, a lot! I read anything, and everything. I also like listening to classical music. I find joy in catching up with my friends and classmates from all over the world.”
Elsie Effah Kaufmann (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now there is a real threat that Russians will successfully execute another generation of Ukrainian culture – this time by missiles and bombs. For me, it would mean the majority of my friends get killed. For an average westerner, it would only mean never seeing their paintings, never hearing them read their poems, or never reading the novels that they have yet to write.”
Victoria Amelina (1986–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I always think it helps not to think about anyone reading your work, but to write what you would want to read.”
Alice Hoffman (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am always glad to express gratitude to the library, I spent my youth there, reading Nancy Drew mysteries, Jack London novels, and the works of Fenimore Cooper. But I never read about myself or about black people. Eventually, at 14, I discovered Howard Fast and that was quite wonderful.”
Nicholasa Mohr (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's a difference between knowing it or reading it, and seeing it. When I first read it, I was like, "Okay, it's real." But for me, it was more words or ideas; a conversation. And it turned out to be just real facts! It's set in the future, of course, but it was there. And I felt more concerned.”
Indira Varma (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you could re-read me before reading me, you would love me much more. (July 30, C.E.1897; Vergani, p. 132)”
Jules Renard (1864–1910) said by 1910 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The more I read the Rig Veda the harder it becomes for me – and much of the difficulty arises from taking seriously the aberrancies and deviations in the language… One can be blissfully reading the most banal hymn, whose form and message offer no surprises (I have come to cherish such coasting) – and suddenly trip over a verse, to which one’s only response can be ‘What??!!”
Stephanie W. Jamison (born 1948) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: quoted in Thomson, K. (2009). A still undeciphered text: How the scientific approach to the Rigveda would open up Indo-European studies. Journal of Indo-European Studies, 37(1-2), 1-72.
“The only way to write is by writing. If you want to write, read well and write well. By reading, you learn from those who are good-you learn style, you learn use of language, which is even the major thing. Whatever language you are using, you must master that language. It is very important.”
Femi Osofisan (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“the literature that we read in the late sixties--I graduated from university in 1969--was really British literature by middle-class or upper-class white men. My people, working-class people, were not represented in the material I was reading.”
Valerie Miner (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I must confess that I finished reading A Russian Diary feeling that it should be taken up and dropped from the air in vast quantities throughout the length and breadth of Mother Russia, for all her people to read.”
Jon Snow (journalist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think probably word of mouth – listening to friends descriptions of faraway places and then I start reading up about wherever and the more you read the more inspired and determined you are to get there!”
Debonnaire von Bismarck (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I got frustrated and didn’t want to read anything, then felt anxious because I wasn’t reading.”
Christine Michel Carter (born 1986) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His seminal work, Murder in a Cassava Patch, was something I read very deeply and [it] took time to sink it in. I thought a lot about my writing when reading it, deciding the kind of crime fiction writer I wanted to be”
Hawa Jande Golakai (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have always read a lot, ever since I was a young girl. [...] Later, I started writing, but only for myself. The stimulus came after reading Proust's Recherche in its entirety. When I decided to submit something to a publishing house and was told that no, it wasn't good enough, I was very satisfied.”
Anna Marchesini (1953–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone who wants to write must first read wide. Do not expect to write if you have not spent time reading, and do not expect to become a millionaire overnight from it.”
Oladejo Okediji (1929–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I developed interest in poetry through my reading habit. I read poems of people like Mu’azu Hadeja, Sa’adu Zungur, Infiraji poems of Namangi among others. It is from there I decided to test my talent to see if I can imitate these great Hausa poets.”
Abubakar Ladan (died 2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I enjoyed reading in upper secondary school and I read a lot of exciting stories, and to share other exciting stories widely, you had to write, so, I started writing.”
Anezi Okoro (1929–2024) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Explaining how his love of reading inspired him to become a writer. At 91, I spend time in "little writing, little reading", The Guardian (Nigeria), 10 June 2020.
“In Grade 4 I was taught by Mr Thabiet Gasant, who forced us to read all the classics. Reading all of that helped conscientise me”
Abduragman Adams wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I went to read once for the part of a girl who thought she was pregnant on ‘The Cosby Show.’ My girlfriend and I were reading the script outside of Bill’s office and we started making up our own characters. A writer heard us talking and told Bill about us. He had us do these new characters twice live on the rehearsals.”
Shari Headley (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source