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. 1,159,190 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Books and reading
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“Books, like friends, should be few and well chosen.”
Samuel Paterson (1728–1802) first seen 1772 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joineriana: or The Book of Scraps (London: 1772), Vol. I, p. 40
“Your borrowers of books—those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes.”
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books think for me.”
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Things in books' clothing.”
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books are a guide in youth, and an entertainment for age. They support us under solitude, and keep us from becoming a burden to ourselves. They help us to forget the crossness of men and things, compose our cares and our passions, and lay our disappointments asleep. When we are weary of the living, we may repair to the dead, who have nothing of peevishness, pride, or design in their conversation.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By the same proportion that a penny saved is a penny gained, the preserver of books is a Mate for the Compiler of them.”
Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) said by 1661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The History of the Worthies of England (1662) ; Worthies of Huntingtonshire – John Yong
“Learning hath gained most by those books by which the printers have lost.”
Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) said by 1661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Cabell's far and away my favourite forgotten American writer — he wrote about 25 books, most of them very different from each other. The only ones to have remained more or less in print over the last forty years are the fantasies Figures of Earth, Jurgen and The Silver Stallion.”
Neil Gaiman (born 1960) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Novelisting" at Neil Gaiman's Journal (23 October 2004)
“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”
Neil Gaiman (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am an inveterate homemaker, it is at once my pleasure, my recreation, and my handicap. Were I a man, my books would have been written in leisure, protected by a wife and a secretary and various household officials. As it is, being a woman, my work has had to be done between bouts of homemaking.”
Pearl S. Buck (1892–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..by going on drawing those types of working people, etc., I hope to arrive at the point of being able to do illustration work for papers and books.”
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) first seen 1881 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In his letter to brother Theo, from Brussels, Belgium (January 1881, letter 140); as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935, p. 19
“How many good books suffer neglect through the inefficiency of their beginnings!”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The enormous multiplication of books in every branch of knowledge is one of the greatest evils of this age; since it presents one of the most serious obstacles to the acquisition of correct information, by throwing in the reader's way piles of lumber in which he must painfully grope for the scraps of useful matter, peradventure interspersed.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So many books, so little time.”
Frank Zappa (1940–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All of the books in the world contain no more information than is broadcast as video in a single large American city in a single year. Not all bits have equal value.”
Carl Sagan (1934–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Though public libraries have an imposing air, and doubtless contain invaluable volumes, yet, somehow, the books that prove most agreeable, grateful, and companionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there; those which seem put into our hands by Providence; those which pretend to little, but abound in much.”
Herman Melville (1819–1891) said by 1891 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of writing many books there is no end; And I who have written much in prose and verse For others' uses, will write now for mine,— Will write my story for my better self, As when you paint your portrait for a friend, Who keeps it in a drawer and looks at it Long after he has ceased to love you, just To hold together what he was and is.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) said by 1861 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I'm saying in my books boils down to this: Mine religion for what is good and avoid what is deleterious. Don't condemn people who need it. Be very careful when that need becomes fanatical.”
Frank Herbert (1920–1986) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conversations in Port Townsend", interview with Tim O'Reilly, 1983. Reprinted in The Maker of Dune: Insights of a Master of Science Fiction (1987), edited by Tim O'Reilly
“It’s certain there is no fine thing Since Adam’s fall but needs much labouring. There have been lovers who thought love should be So much compounded of high courtesy That they would sigh and quote with learned looks Precedents out of beautiful old books; Yet now it seems an idle trade enough.”
William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) said by 1939 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the best ways of enslaving a people is to keep them from education... The second way of enslaving a people is to suppress the sources of information, not only by burning books but by controlling all the other ways in which ideas are transmitted. (11 May 1943)”
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that, like in my writing, reality is always a soap bubble, Silly Putty thing anyway. In the universe people are in, people put their hands through the walls, and it turns out they're living in another century entirely. ... I often have the feeling — and it does show up in my books — that this is all just a stage.”
Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview, Science Fiction Review (August 1976)
“All nonsense. Nobody knows the real Göring. I am a man of many parts, but the autobiography, what does that tell you? Nothing. And those books put out by the party press, they are less than useless.”
Hermann Göring (1893–1946) first seen 1946 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Leon Goldensohn (27 May 1946)
“Have you any notion how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe?”
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books are the mirrors of the soul.”
Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How marvelous books are, crossing worlds and centuries, defeating ignorance and, finally, cruel time itself.”
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lonely children often have imaginary playmates but I was never lonely; rather, I was solitary, and wanted no company at all other than books and movies, and my own imagination.”
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yo, peep. This me name be Gore Vidal. I is spitting rhymes about early history. Why homies give props to Uzis, not books? Ain't nothing but a mystery, aight.”
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Jah" (15 August 2004), Da Ali G Show
“About Le Corbusier: Well, now that he's finished one building, he'll go write four books about it.”
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) said by 1959 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Rushdie was stabbed in August 2022, leading to life-changing injuries, by an admirer of Ayatollah Khomeini. His novel, Victory City, was about to be published.] I'm hoping that to some degree it might change the subject. I've always thought that my books are more interesting than my life [...] Unfortunately, the world appears to disagree.”
Salman Rushdie (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.”
Louis Pasteur (1822–1895) said by 1895 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Mammoth Book of Zingers, Quips, and One-Liners (2004) by Geoff Tibballs
“The proper study of mankind is books.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Life was so short, and books so countlessly many.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That was the chief difference between literature and life. In books, the proportion of exceptional to commonplace people is high; in reality, very low.”
Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks.”
Umberto Eco (1932–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We live for books.”
Umberto Eco (1932–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think the author who influenced me the most as a writer was Richard Matheson. Books like I Am Legend were an inspiration to me.”
Stephen King (born 1947) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in an edition of I Am Legend (1995)
“Cut word lines — Cut music lines — Smash the control images — Smash the control machine — Burn the books — Kill the priests — Kill! Kill! Kill!”
William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Soft Machine (1961)
“American literature was enriched with Men Who Loved Allison.... Of the actual and eventual worth of this romance I cannot pretend to be an unprejudiced judge. The tale seems to me one of those many books which have profited, very dubiously indeed, by having obtained, in one way of another, the repute of being indecent.”
James Branch Cabell (1879–1958) first seen 1929 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Author's Note (1929 edition)
“The art of writing books is not yet invented. But it is at the point of being invented. Fragments of this nature are literary seeds. There may be many an infertile grain among them: nevertheless, if only some come up!”
Novalis (1772–1801) said by 1801 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and at the bottom of the Spanish Main... and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.”
Walt Disney (1901–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Peter's Quotations : Ideas for Our Time (1977) by Laurence J. Peter
“The first step — especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money — the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art.”
Chuck Palahniuk (born 1962) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Closing remarks made on an eClass forum (Barnes & Noble University) (2004-12-05)
“Imagine the books burning. And tapes and films and files, radios and televisions, will all go into that same bonfire. All those libraries and bookstores blazing away in the night. People will attack microwave relay stations. People with axes will chop every fiber-optic cable.”
Chuck Palahniuk (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you haven’t already noticed, all my books are about a lonely person looking for some way to connect with other people. In a way, that is the opposite of the American Dream: to get so rich you can rise above the rabble, all those people on the freeway or, worse, the bus.”
Chuck Palahniuk (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wise man reads both books and life itself.”
Lin Yutang (1895–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Community college is like a disco with books: "Here's ten dollars; let me get my learn on!”
Chris Rock (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books let us into their souls and lay open to us the secrets of our own.”
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) first seen 1830 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sick Chamber," The New Monthly Magazine (August 1830), reprinted in Essays of William Hazlitt, selected and edited by Frank Carr (London, 1889)
“Vereker’s secret, my dear man — the general intention of his books: the string the pearls were strung on, the buried treasure, the figure in the carpet.”
Henry James (1843–1916) first seen 1896 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Figure in the Carpet (1896)
“Let your house Be spacious more than splendid, and be books And busts your most conspicuous furniture.”
Alfred Austin (1835–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah, yet, ere I descend to th' grave May I a small house, and large garden have! And a few friends, and many books, both true, Both wise, and both delightful too! And since Love ne'er will from mee flee, A mistress moderately fair, And good as guardian angels are, Only belov'd, and loving me!”
Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) said by 1667 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fairest garden in her looks, And in her mind the wisest books.”
Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) said by 1667 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source