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. 1,158,808 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Books and reading
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“Don’t be in a rush to start writing or to become a writer. Read a lot. Pay attention to details when you read. Observe the environment around you, listen to conversations, and participate in conversations. Watch films. Live.”
Olubunmi Familoni wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Boredom, I do not know what it is, no doubt because I read; I read slowly, a lot, often taking notes; I never engage in a debate, even a literary one, without having sufficiently informed myself on the subject.”
Olympe Bhêly-Quenum (born 1926) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I play the flute. I can read and write music by flute. I can also read piano notes, because it’s the same thing as flute notes, they’re just upside down. I started playing flute in 6th grade. So I was about 11 or 12. I kept playing all the way up until high school along with piano.”
“I tended to read whatever was in the house, which meant that I read a lot of odd stuff. Who was that guy that used to write about men's clubs all the time? John O'Hara. It was Mars for me”
John O'Hara (1905–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1996 interview in Conversations with Octavia Butler
“A wise man poor Is like a sacred book that’s never read,— To himself he lives, and to all else seems dead. This age thinks better of a gilded fool Than of a threadbare saint in wisdom’s school.”
Thomas Dekker (writer) first seen 1599 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Old Fortunatus (1599).
Also quoted by: Ben Jonson
“Go vegan because you want to change something in yourself or in the world and then do more. Eating a certain way isn’t enough; we have to do something about the world we live in. Anyone who wants to be vegan or cares about the earth or the life on earth should read a book called Endgame, Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization”
Andy Hurley (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Love wakes men, once a lifetime each; They lift their heavy lids, and look; And, lo, what one sweet page can teach, They read with joy, then shut the book.”
Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think What Dreams May Come is the most important (read effective) book I’ve written. It has caused a number of readers to lose their fear of death — the finest tribute any writer could receive. ... Somewhere In Time is my favorite novel.”
Richard Matheson (1926–2013) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ed Gorman Calling: We Talk to Richard Matheson", in Filmfax magazine (2004). Online at MYSTERY*FILE: The Crime Fiction Research Journal (2006)
“This book itself is a transformational device that has come out of the arising new consciousness. The ideas and concepts presented here may be important, but they are secondary. They are no more than signposts pointing toward awakening. As you read, a shift takes place within you.”
Eckhart Tolle (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death.”
John Green (born 1977) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some people have called the book the "bible of software engineering". I would agree with that in one respect: that is, everybody quotes it, some people read it, and a few people go by it.”
Fred Brooks (1931–2022) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Quoted Often, Followed Rarely, ; About the 1975 The Mythical Man-Month.
“If you want to understand the beliefs that are shaping global politics, read the Book of Revelation.”
John Gray (philosopher) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review: Sacred Causes by Michael Burleigh (2006-10-28)
“What made it possible for me to exercise freedom of choice also made it impossible to know the future. Conversely, now that I know the future, I would never act contrary to that future. [...] Those who've read the Book of Ages never admit to it.”
Ted Chiang (born 1967) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Story of Your Life; first appeared in Starlight 2, 1998.
“Maybe you should try looking a little less smug about what you did last night." "I do not look smug. Well, no more than usual." "Please, I can read your face like a very open, very pornographic book. I wish I couldn't.”
Cassandra Clare (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The book of your revolution sits in the pit of your belly, young Indian. Crap it out, and read.Instead of which, they’re all sitting in front of color TVs and watching cricket and shampoo advertisements.”
Aravind Adiga (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How I wish you could see the potential The potential of you and me It's like a book elegantly bound, but In a language that you can't read just yet You got to spend some time, love You got to spend some time with me And I know that you'll find love I will possess your heart”
Ben Gibbard (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Examiners] spend their lives in discovering which pages of a text-book a man ought to read and which will not be likely to 'pay'.”
Peter Guthrie Tait (1831–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Surely it is more honourable to do great things, than to speak or read great things!...When a Christian has one eye upon his book, the other should be looking up to heaven for a blessing upon what he reads.”
Thomas Brooks (Puritan) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I try to avoid having thoughts. They lead to other thoughts, and—if you're not careful—those lead to actions. Actions make you tired. I have this on rather good authority from someone who once read it in a book.”
Brandon Sanderson (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My best friend once gave me a framed 19th century book called What Katy Did Next. I’ve never read it, but the title has always stuck with me. That’s the point - it’s about continuing to move forward, and dream.”
Katy Perry (born 1984) first seen 2025 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Katy Perry admits she's been 'beloved, tested and tried' amid Orlando Bloom split Hello Magazine (September 24, 2025).
“The Book of Revelation, difficult as it may be for "literalists," becomes much simpler when we read it typologically, as a mosiac of allusions to Old Testament prophecy.”
Northrop Frye (1912–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We live, and move, and have our being in a consumer cosmos. The global economy and interconnection of markets and resources means every time we eat a meal, listen to music, put on clothing, or read a book, we are being consumers.”
Skye Jethani (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s hard to be wrongfully accused, but it’s worse when the people looking down on you are clods who have never read a book or traveled more than twenty miles from the place they were born.”
Patrick Rothfuss (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Remember three things about censorship. First, it doesn’t work to suppress art or words that you don’t like. Second, trying to censor something just arouses interest in it, as well as resentment towards those who try to tell others what they can or cannot see. Third, exhibiting art or recommending that students read a book does not mean an endorsement of the image or contents.”
Jerry Coyne (born 1949) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: National Coalition Against Censorship and PEN defend Met’s showing of a “controversial” painting" December 9, 2017
“Maybe it's the remnants of my religious upbringing, but I do try and insert a sense of social justice into the work … for instance, to me, Mansfield Park is a story about servitude and slavery. Other people may have a problem with that, but that's how I read the book and so that's how I shot the movie.”
Patricia Rozema (born 1958) first seen 2001 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Weird Sex and Snowshoes : And Other Canadian Film Phenomena (2001) by Katherine Monk, p. 150
“I read a book not to find its meaning, but to find my happiness.”
Carson Cistulli (born 1979) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Some Common Weaknesses Illustrated (2006)
“If you want to read a perfect book there is only one way: write it.”
Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Never read any book that is not a year old.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In order to read one must sit down, usually indoors. I am restless and would rather sail a boat than crack a book. I've never had a very lively literary curiosity, and it has sometimes seemed to me that I am not really a literary fellow at all. Except that I write for a living.”
E. B. White (1899–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I cannot read a sentence in the book of the Hindoos without being elevated as upon the table-land of the Ghauts. It has such a rhythm as the winds of the desert, such a tide as the Ganges, and seems as superior to criticism as the Himmaleh Mounts. Even at this late hour, unworn by time with a native and inherent dignity it wears the English dress as indifferently as the Sanscrit.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) first seen 1841 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: August 6, 1841
“And I see Bill Buckley's here tonight, a fellow Yale man. We go way back, and have a lot in common. Bill wrote a book at Yale. I read one.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Al Smith Dinner, October 2000
“Do you know the difference between a comic book and a graphic novel? If you try to read a graphic novel in the sauna, it comes apart. Glue melts; staples don’t.”
Larry Niven (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Suggest always put Islamic "scholar" in quotes, to avoid insulting true scholars. True scholars have read more than one book.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (25 July 2014)
“Woe to the book you can read without constantly wondering about the author!”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The sentences in the book of providence are sometimes long, and you must read a great way before you understand their meaning.”
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) said by 1714 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No book had ever really hinted of it, though the deathless Chinamen said that there were double meanings in the Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred which the initiated might read as they chose, especially the much-discussed couplet:”
H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The whole idea of what happens when you read a book, I find absolutely stunning. Here's some product of a tree, little black squiggles on it, you open it up, and inside your head is the voice of someone speaking, who may have been dead 3000 years, and there he is talking directly to you, what a magical thing that is.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Carl Sagan on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (full interview, May 20th, 1977)
“I find television very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.”
Groucho Marx (1890–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (1984) by Leslie Halliwell
“If I read a book [and] it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) first seen 1870 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to T. W. Higginson (1870); Letters (1958) p. 474, no. 342a
“If THIS book is to be properly understood, it must be read not as a work on metaphysics, still less as a... theological essay, but purely and simply as a scientific treatise.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) said by 1955 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I bought the blue paper book [Ulysses], & read it here one summer I think with spasms of wonder, of discovery, & then again with long lapses of immense boredom.”
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diary entry January 15, 1941.
“There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It's all there. Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time.”
J. D. Salinger (1919–2010) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the main character in his novel The Catcher in the Rye, as quoted in Asks Appeals Court to Uphold Ban on ‘Catcher’ Sequel" in The New York Times (14 August 2009)
“James Branch Cabell made this book so that he who wills may read the story of mans eternally unsatisfied hunger in search of beauty. Ettarre stays inaccessible always and her lovliness is his to look on only in his dreams. All men she must evade at the last and many ar the ways of her elusion.”
James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A scholar is like a book written in a dead language — it is not every one that can read in it.”
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) first seen 1823 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Common Places," No. 13, The Literary Examiner (September - December 1823)
“If I have not read a book before, it is, to all intents and purposes, new to me, whether it was printed yesterday or three hundred years ago.”
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) first seen 1825 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Reading New Books" (1825)
“Here she drew forth a small pocket-book, took from it a card and a pencil and, after meditating a moment, wrote a few words. It is our privilege to look over her shoulder, and if we exercise it we may read the brief query: [...].”
Henry James (1843–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She read a little of it. I give her review verbatim:—"Oh, your book? It's all about those how-wid Wajahs. I didn't understand it.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's like a book, I think, this bloomin' world, Which you can read and care for just so long, But presently you feel that you will die Unless you get the page you're readin' done, An' turn another—likely not so good; But what you're after is to turn 'em all.”
Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only person who wants real fairness is whoever has the worst life on earth, because he has nothing of his own to share in return. I don't know who that person is, but I have a mental image of a naked guy with no arms and legs, living in a rented poison ivy patch and being forced to read this book.”
Scott Adams (1957–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“His [Spinoza's] correspondence is the most interesting book one can read in the world of uprightness and of humanity. [Original in German: Sei Briefwechsel sei das interessanteste Buch, das man in der Welt von Aufrichtigkeit, Menschenliebe lesen könne.]”
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) said by 1677 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, as quoted in A. Wolf, The Correspondence of Spinoza (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1928)