Famous quotes

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“He only is wise who devotes himself to realizing, not reading only, the ancient revelations.”
Lahiri Mahasaya (1828–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Research desk: In 1992, a Mexican edition of the “Protocols"’’’ was listed in a few Catholic schools as required reading! And that same year in Turkey, a newspaper carried a 40-page insert that linked Freemasonry to Jewish world power headed by 70 elders! Again in 1992 a Russian edition of the “Protocols of Zion” appeared. Well, that’s the whole story, sir.”
Will Eisner (1917–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“David Eddings:‏ I'm afraid that ignorance, hate, racism, and violence will be exacerbated by silence. If speaking out is not an answer then what is? Markus Persson:‏ Reading up on history, thinking for yourself, and not being an idiot.”
Markus Persson (born 1979) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Twitter (14 August 2017)
“One should keep oneself occupied all the time with wholesome deeds such as: learning, teaching, memorizing, reading, scrutinizing, and chanting the Buddhist scriptures; discharging the daily duties of a monk; discussing the Dhamma, only speaking about the Dhamma; giving or listening to Dhamma talks, and practicing asceticism.”
Mahasi Sayadaw (1904–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of those usual summer Sabbaths. Chores - breakfast - listen aimlessly to radio - swing music - symphony - round table discussion — and then rather aimless reading.”
Virgil John Tangborn (1920–1944) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: August 17, 1941
“In 250 years, reading and writing will have turned out to be a fad.”
Bran Ferren (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Internet represents the greatest story telling technology since the development of language. It will be far more important than reading and writing as a purposeful tool. Everything that is enabled by story telling will be enabled by the Internet.”
Bran Ferren (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Singh returned to his reading material, a glossy brochure that folded like a particularly annoying map, for the products of Bharat Chemicals. ... A flowchart explained that the employee structure combined the best elements of East and West’ – surly American management and cheap Indian labour, concluded Singh.”
Shamini Flint (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've tried to make my writing itself therapeutic—that by your act of reading it your Life Energy may be enhanced. One of the ways I have sought to achieve this is to make it singable, as best I can do. Not singable like song lyrics, rather more chantable. Encouraging you to sing along, moving with its flow, its pulse, its pulsations.”
John Diamond (doctor) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think reading is an effective way of introspecting how you perceive reality and imagination. As an author, you get to know what other authors have done better and it helps hone skills.”
Gaurav Sharma (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It (reading) not only opens up one’s mind to a wider array of things as well, but is also a welcome relief from the monotony of the mundane world.”
Gaurav Sharma (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I asked the Field Marshal von Manstein if he would take part in the actions against Hitler. Manstein was sitting in a chair and reading the Bible. Quick, almost embarrassed, he put it aside and covered it with some papers.”
Dietrich von Choltitz (1894–1966) first seen 1952 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: About Erich von Manstein, "Der Spiegel", nr. 14, p. 12, 2 April 1952, spiegel.de
“All my life I had hated machines. I could remember how bitterly at school I had resented reading the news that someone had flown across the Atlantic or travelled through the Sahara in a car. I had realized even then that the speed and ease of mechanical transport must rob the world of all diversity.”
Wilfred Thesiger (1910–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“i just need to say, to anyone reading this.. You are Important, You are loved, and You belong in this world, if you have over 5000 followers”
Dril (born 1987) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Her life, except for reading, had been dull—but it had not been in vain.”
Fredric Brown (1906–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We do not just live in an English-speaking world. We live in an English-writing and English-reading world, an English thinking-world. If we write philosophy in Spanish or Portuguese (for example), our thoughts simply do not come into existence; they remain in a kind of limbo, not even as bad or trivial (this would show some kind of visibility), but as not existent at all.”
Julio Cabrera (born 1944) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Why philosophy not written in English does not exist: hegemonic language as ontological policy. The case of South-American antinatalism, 2018, p. 1
“Revisionists believe that the cardinal sin of communism is not opportunism but "infantile ultra-leftism" and, basing themselves on a selective reading of Lenin's analysis of ultra-leftism, will argue that any criticism of revisionist practice (any open demand for a revolutionary politics that produces militant practice) is the very ultra-leftism that threatens the left.”
J. Moufawad-Paul wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Princeton graduate students pride themselves in never reading “anyone who takes philosophy personally or confuses philosophy with things that matter in their little lives.” But being ignorant, apparently, of how they (and their professors, presumably) have come to hold such a view, they have no idea of how it might be criticized, or who they are who hold it.”
Bruce Wilshire (1932–2015) said by 2015 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You who are reading this can say that my prose is crazy, abnormal, as you have called my actions crazy and abnormal. But your judgment doesn’t interest me at all nor do I solicit it.”
Bruno Filippi (1900–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All this reading and thinking led me to believe it was my first duty to serve Hindudom and Hindus both as a patriot and as a world citizen. To secure the freedom and to safeguard the just interests of some thirty crores (300 million) of Hindus would automatically constitute the freedom and the well-being of all India, one fifth of human race.”
Nathuram Godse (1910–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The existence of the above evils, amongst many others, points to the urgent necessity for a greatly revised reading of the Bible. If, however, many of the anomalies in the Old Testament can be shown to be revelations, under the veil of symbology, of profound spiritual, metaphysical and psychological truths, then the importance of the study of the Scriptures from this point of view at once emerges.”
Geoffrey Hodson (1886–1983) said by 1983 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bob seems to know almost everything; but he doesn’t know when or why people stopped reading. “Most people are too lazy,” he said. “They only want distractions.”
Walter Tevis (1928–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On reading Trotsky's History of the Russian Revolution we are struck by a fundamental contradiction: as an honest historian he shows us just how much the Party lagged behind the masses, and as a Bolshevik theorist he must reaffirm that the Party was necessary for the succession of the revolution.”
Daniel Cohn-Bendit (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In our daily lives, where we’re bombarded by the fake and the trivial, reading serves as a way to stop, shut out the noise of the world, and try to grab hold of something real, no matter how small.”
Maureen Corrigan (born 1955) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the chief differences between the commerce of the sixteenth century and of the twentieth lies in the wonderful and complicated organizations of the present day. Their magnitude makes even the largest of those of which we have been reading seem insignificant.”
Harry Gordon Selfridge (1858–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reading his discourses made me realize that Rajneesh was a sad loss. He had an extraordinary range of knowledge and a vision of how life should be lived, but he proved incapable of following his own precepts.”
Anthony Storr (1920–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(What moves you most in a work of literature?) Reading about an ordinary person who behaves with integrity in a terrifying situation. (2016)”
Louise Erdrich (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I was twenty-four I had a spiritual experience one night while reading the Bible. Just like Saul on the road to Damascus, I 'saw the light' and came to a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ and the Word of God. That night I believe God told me that I would be alive at the moment Jesus Christ comes back. For twenty-one years I have been convinced of this.”
Patrick Heron (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Reading for writers is like training for athletes.”
Linda Sue Park (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Salva shouldered his way through the crowd until he was standing in front of the list. He raised his head slowly and began reading through the names. There it was. Salva Dut—Rochester, New York. Salva was going to New York. He was going to America!”
Linda Sue Park (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don’t like to hear people speaking in my work. I like reading it, and I marvel at people who can do it well. And there’s something when you see it done well. It’s just so terrific. But I’m not able to do it.”
Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the lack of dialogue in her works in “An Interview with Jamaica Kincaid” in The Believer (2003 Jul 1)
“It is a dual thing – you belong and you don’t. I remember the Ghanaian passport official reading my name correctly and it felt like the biggest, warmest welcome. At the same time, I understand my native language but don’t speak it. So I am necessarily at this remove – the country can never be fully mine.”
Yaa Gyasi (born 1989) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the duality of identity when visiting Ghana in “Yaa Gyasi: ‘Slavery is on people’s minds. It affects us still’” in The Guardian (2017 Jan 8)
“One of the most valuable skills I’d learned while trying to survive as a refugee was reading what other people wanted me to do.”
Clemantine Wamariya (born 1988) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: I hadn’t seen my parents for 12 years. ideas.ted.com (May 8, 2018)
“She used her brain and systematized her work, so that she might find time to do good in the world. The time many wives and mother of her day frittered away in gayety and embroidery she spent in reading and committing to memory choice thoughts in poetry and prose.”
Mary Church Terrell (1863–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was not really of the barrio, but the barrio was an important part of my life. Spanish was my first language; English was the language of my reading world. This was the world I lived in—an idealistic world, and unreal world that filled my senses with hopes, with joy and identification…”
Estela Portillo-Trambley (1936–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I feel like over the years, I’ve become more invested in a kind of written spoken voice. And connected to that, that I’m interested in the audience in a different way than I was before. I’m interested in caring for my audience. I don’t mean taking care of them. I mean being understanding. I understand that someone reading something that I’ve written is a generosity.”
Ross Gay (born 1974) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his evolution as a poet in “‘Ross Gay: Finding joy in the process” in Writer Magazine (2019 Jun 24)
“It is certain... that to experience the Self we must follow a spiritual practice. Even to achieve something in daily life we have to work for it. We cannot satisfy our appetite merely by reading a description of a delicious meal.”
Muktananda (1908–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It totally matters to me that teenagers think I'm cool. I mean, teens keep their fingers on the pulse of culture. When things shift, it's usually because they shift them. They call the shots. So if teenagers think I'm cool, then hopefully they'll want to get down with whatever I'm doing. My hope is that reading and writing becomes the new "waiting in line to buy Jordans.”
Jason Reynolds (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“…Young people – especially young men – it’s not that they hate reading, it’s that they hate boredom. So my thing was: I need to write a story that is interesting, that is gripping, that can connect to them and their experiences, and write something that’s not very intimidating, because there’s so much white space.”
Jason Reynolds (born 1983) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On keeping young people interested in reading in “Jason Reynolds: ‘What’s unusual about my story is that I became a writer’” in The Guardian (2018 Aug 4)
“I’ve never considered myself a strong reader or writer. When I was younger, I had some hardships with reading and writing, and I never thought of myself as someone who could pull this off. To a degree it was challenging. In my everyday life, I’m pretty private and reserved, so the hardest part was taking personal emotion and putting it on the page and putting myself out there…”
Ian Purkayastha (born 1992) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On writing his book Truffle Boy in “Ian Purkayastha: How I Write” in The Writer (2017 Aug 7)
“…I looked the word up in the dictionary – I have had little formal instruction, what I know I have learned by reading, travelling, picking the right friends and the right lovers – and I told myself that I have always persevered...”
Lauren Hutton (born 1943) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On embodying the concept of perseverance in “Interview with Lauren Hutton” in Vogue Magazine (2017 Oct 5)
“I learned to write reading North American literature, I love your literature, but I have this feeling that if a country only reads its own literature, it will run out of oxygen.”
Samanta Schweblin (born 1978) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On her encouraging that Americans read literature beyond their country in “Samanta Schweblin on Revealing Darkness Through Fiction” in LitHub (2017 Jan 12)
“I annoy everybody, not just certain women…I think it is because I'm not interested in the group, only in the individual. What happens is my message enters the conflicted person reading it who is half self, half society but does not know where one begins and the other ends. I light up that conflict and it makes people angry.”
Rachel Cusk (born 1967) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On why her writing might cause a stir, as quoted in Kate Kellaway in "Rachel Cusk: 'Aftermath was creative death. I was heading into total silence'" The Guardian (24 August 2014)
“What happens at the beginning of your poem has to—because it’s a poem—be transformed by the end of your poem. So if the triggering moment for the beginning of your poem is a known political moment, I am fine with that, that’s great. But as I’m reading, I expect it to change because that was just the trigger…”
Jericho Brown (born 1976) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On how poems might be structured around a political theme in “JERICHO BROWN in conversation with MICHAEL DUMANIS” in Bennington Review (2018 Oct 27)
“There's only one thing better than reading about true crime and that's being told about it, particularly when the teller is Phoebe Judge, an American who sounds far nicer than anyone has any right to sound when they know so much about the staggering diversity of human frailty.”
Phoebe Judge (born 1983) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A close reading of the Rg-vedic passages in which terms meaning white or light and dark or black are employed in reference to human beings convinces me that a racial interpretation of these terms is not required by textual evidence.”
Hans Henrich Hock (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No serious coverage of taxes is possible without reading the journal Tax Notes published by , a nonprofit enterprise whose beneficiaries include reporters.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]e have the highest percentage of children who go to bed hungry of any modern country. You wouldn't know from reading the news or watching TV that America has a hunger problem, that all across America we have communities, in the country, in the suburbs, in the city, where volunteers send home backpacks full of food for families on the weekend, because otherwise these kids would not eat.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I love creating and discovering different characters, and reading such interesting scripts, working with creative and passionate people. I think it’s also important to watch a lot of films and go to the theatre to keep yourself inspired.”
Phoebe Tonkin (born 1989) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview With Phoebe Tonkin (May 16, 2011)
“TV is a lot like having an office job: same crew, same people every day—it’s like a family, I didn’t move here to be on a job for three months and then sit around reading scripts and drinking coffee in L.A. the rest of the time. The quality of TV is so great now, and you get to do what you love every day. It’s the closest thing to having a normal job.”
Phoebe Tonkin (born 1989) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Not your ordinary girl: Phoebe Tonkin (March 1, 2015)