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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“There are some books which cannot be adequately reviewed for twenty or thirty years after they come out.”
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) said by 1923 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...were I in charge of either of the Big Two, my “solution” to the ills of the industry would be to “reset” all the books to where they were at some arbitrarily chosen point in time. Usually I say 1976, for many reasons good and bad. Mostly because that’s the last year when, while actually still working in the Biz, I really still felt like a fan. (2007)”
John Byrne (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If ^^***** had the stones they’d say “Screw continuity! As of January 2007, we’re hitting ‘rewind’ and resetting all the books to where they were in 1972—just set in modern time.” No “cosmic events,” no 100 issue crossovers. Just an editorial fiat, like Man of Steel. Only way to get things done. (2006)”
John Byrne (born 1950) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And fighting the battle of life is fighting against fearful odds, too. There are giants and dragons in this nineteenth century, and the golden casket that they guard is not so easy to win as it appears in the story-books.”
Jerome K. Jerome (1859–1927) said by 1927 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a matter of hard, dry fact, from which there can be no getting away, there is more Labour legislation standing to the credit account of the Conservative Party on the Statute Books than there is to that of their opponents. It is a grotesque assumption that one side exists for the purpose of passing such legislation while the other does so grudgingly and under the force of compulsion.”
Keir Hardie (1856–1915) first seen 1903 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Labour Politics, Tracts for the Times, No. 2 (July 1903), quoted in Robert McKenzie and Allan Silver, Angels in Marble: Working Class Conservatives in Urban England (1968), p. 44, n. 60
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but how many can get through to you.”
Mortimer Adler (1902–2001) first seen 1941 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How to Mark a Book," The Saturday Review of Literature (6 July 1941); also in Modern English Readings (1946), pp. 298-301
“If only the specialist is to be allowed access to these books, on the ground that it is impossible to understand them without "scholarship," ... then we shall be compelled to shut out the majority of mankind from some of the finest creations of the human mind. This is aristocracy with a vengeance.”
Robert Maynard Hutchins (1899–1977) said by 1977 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I knew a couple of things... during the war years they came out with reprints of all the Dumas novels, Moby Dick, for the servicemen, and I saw this and believe me I'm a very sharp merchandiser, and I say this is the new marketplace for writing: original paperback books.”
Mickey Spillane (1918–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hemingway hated me. I sold 200 million books, and he didn't. Of course most of mine sold for 25 cents, but still... you look at all this stuff with a grain of salt.”
Mickey Spillane (1918–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Get your children out of the public schools, if possible. The problem with the lies in the books is not fixable in the short term and there is a great chance your student will be negatively impacted if you leave them in a public school setting.”
Kent Hovind (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A man with a mouth like a mastiff, a brow like a mountain and eyes like burning anthracite — that was Dan'l Webster in his prime. And the biggest case he argued never got written down in the books, for he argued it against the devil, nip and tuck and no holds barred. And this is the way I used to hear it told.”
Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was a time, it says in books, that the Icelandic people had only one national treasure: a bell . . . When the king decreed that the people of Iceland were to relinquish all of their brass and copper so that Copenhagen could be rebuilt following the war, men were sent to fetch the ancient bell at Þingvellir by Öxará.”
Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People with the same education as my own, speaking the same words that I do, loving the same books, the same music, the same paintings, are by no means immune from the danger of turning into monsters and doing things we would not have thought possible among the people of our own day, apart from a few pathological exceptions. If they are not immune, Why should I be so confident of my own immunity?”
Max Frisch (1911–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A writer is in the end not his books, but his myth. And that myth is in the keeping of others.”
V. S. Naipaul (1932–2018) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Steinbeck in Monterey" (1970), in Daily Telegraph Magazine (3 April 1970), later published in The Overcrowded Barracoon, and other articles (1972)
“Think of what our Nation stands for, Books from Boots and country lanes, Free speech, free passes, class distinction, Democracy and proper drains. Lord, put beneath Thy special care One-eighty-nine Cadogan Square.”
John Betjeman (1906–1984) said by 1984 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I started publishing small poetry plaquettes. They were about 200 copies. Then I went up to 2 thousand and now I have reached 20 thousand. Last week a publisher suggested that I publish my books in a collection that runs 100,000 copies. I refused: what I want is to return to the 200 from the beginning.”
Henri Michaux (1899–1984) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Octavio Paz in “Don Juan Teachings,” 30th year anniversary, spanish edition, prologue. Cambridge, Mass., september the 15th, (1973.)
“Whether the 6-day creation story is a fable or the truth alluding to time dilation in Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, the Bible and the Quran – sharing the same root as an Abrahamic religion – are undoubtedly amongst the most profound and influential books ever written.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have noticed that the Christianity of a certain class of respectable people begins when they open their prayer-books at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning, and ends when they shut them up again at one o'clock on Sunday afternoon. Nothing so astonishes and insults Christians of this sort as reminding them of their Christianity on a week-day.”
Wilkie Collins (1824–1889) first seen 1886 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Armadale - Vol. II [Collier, 1886] (p. 130)
“The men that write books, Carlyle says, are now the world's priests, the spiritual directors of mankind.”
James Anthony Froude (1818–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge exists in minds, not in books. Before what has been found can be used by practitioners, someone must organize it, integrate it, extract the message”
Kenneth Boulding (1910–1993) first seen 1976 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed to Kenneth Boulding (1976) in John T. Partington, Terry Orlick, John H. Salmela (1982) Sport in perspective. p. 94
“Lord Peter Wimsey: Books...are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.”
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) said by 1957 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The days were long and lonely. The sudden and total deprivation of such basic human necessities as exercise and fresh air, association with other people, my own clothes and things like newspapers, radio, cigarettes books and a host of other things, made my life very hard.”
Bobby Sands (1954–1981) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On his experience in solitary confinement in prison, in An Phoblacht/Republican News (1978), under the pseudonym "Marcella.
“One reason nearly half my books are for children is the glorious fact that the minds of children are still open to the living word; in the child, nightside and sunside are not yet separated; fantasy contains truths which cannot be stated in terms of proof.”
Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Kids don't hesitate to ask questions. And it's a great honor to have the kids say, "Your books have made me trust you.”
Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are past the point where critics, whether reviewing a few poetry books in the London Times or New York Times, or for literary magazines, editors, teachers of literature and male poets themselves can pontificate about poetry and mean only the work of twenty or thirty white male writers.”
Marge Piercy (born 1936) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Introduction to Early Ripening: American Women's Poetry Now (1987)
“Only two classes of books are of universal appeal: the very best and the very worst.”
Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joseph Conrad : A Personal Remembrance (1924)
“No author, I think, is deserving of much censure for vanity if, taking down one of his ten-year-old books, he exclaims: "Great heavens, did I write as well as that then?" for the implication always is that one does not write any longer so well and few are so envious as to censure the complacencies of an extinct volcano.”
Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939) first seen 1927 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dedicatory letter to Stella Ford (1927-01-09) in The Good Soldier, second edition.
“In some quarters the films and books are lauded for their wholesome message, which is weird considering Bella is essentially deciding whether she'd rather shag a bat or a wolf. She's got zero interest in honest-to-goodness human-on-human action. No. It's magic farmyard creatures or nothing for her.”
Charlie Brooker (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What are books but folly, and what is an education but an arrant hypocrisy, and what is art but a curse when they touch not the heart and impel it not to action?”
Louis Sullivan (1856–1924) said by 1924 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is it not sad, I said to my countrymen, that we have to learn from a foreigner about ourselves? Thanks to the German scholars we get accurate information about ourselves, and when everything in our country has been destroyed and we wish to verify the historical correctness of certain facts we shall have to come to Germany to search for these facts, in German museums and books!”
José Rizal (1861–1896) first seen 1887 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Blumentritt (13 April 1887)
“Of course there were doubts about it, there always had been; when you found out about all the other holy books there had ever been throughout the histories of other peoples throughout the galaxy, you realised how common they were, and how fallible, how restricted they were by the usual tribal prejudices and traditions of the people who – it took real blind faith not to accept – had made them up.”
Iain Banks (1954–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our textbook is the Bible. Besides a title, many books also have a sub-title. We could write as a subtitle on the front of the Bible: "A Textbook for Becoming Completely Happy".”
Elias Aslaksen (1888–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Children aren't coloring books. You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors.”
Khaled Hosseini (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books are my one luxury.”
Stella Vine (born 1969) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Williams-Akoto. "My Home: Stella Vine, artist", The Independent, (2005-11-30)
“He looks like he’d be a hellcat in a fight. Tom and I agreed that he was easily the best qualified. But he doesn’t know anything about books, and I need educated people around me. That may sound snobbish, but so what?”
Philip José Farmer (1918–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Libraries are brothels for the mind. Which means that librarians are the madames, greeting the punters, understanding their strange tastes and needs and then pimping their books.”
Guy Browning (born 1964) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: How to... use a Library, Never Push When It Says Pull: Small Rules for Little Problems (2005).
“Some on commission, some for the love of learning, Some because they have nothing better to do Or because they hope these walls of books will deaden The drumming of the demon in their ears.”
Louis MacNeice (1907–1963) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The British Museum Reading Room", l. 4 (July 1939)
“Books cannot always please, however good; Minds are not ever craving for their food.”
George Crabbe (1754–1832) first seen 1810 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Borough (1810), Letter xxiv, "Schools".
“Books may look like nothing more than words on a page, but they are actually an infinitely complex imaginotransference technology that translates odd, inky squiggles into pictures inside your head.”
Jasper Fforde (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books”—Snell smiled—“are a kind of magic.”
Jasper Fforde (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have found out that the real essentials of greatness in men are not written in books, nor can they be found in the schools, They are written into the inner consciousness of everyone who intensely searches for perfection in creative achievement and are understandable to such men only.”
Walter Russell (1871–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They left no books, Memorial to their lonely thought In grey parishes: rather they wrote On men's hearts and in the minds Of young children sublime words Too soon forgotten. God in his time Or out of time will correct this.”
R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He arose, pacing the floor Strewn with books, his mind big with the poem Soon to be born, his nerves tense to endure The long torture of delayed birth.”
R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) said by 2000 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The things that really matter have nothing to do with politics. Love between friends. Good books. The beauties of nature.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'I'd rather look at a lovely view than march on May Day', Daily Herald (4 May 1955), p. 4
“History gets thicker as it approaches recent times: more people, more events, and more books written about them. More evidence is preserved, often, one is tempted to say, too much. Decay and destruction have hardly begun their beneficent work.”
A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) first seen 1975 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Revised Bibliography" (1975 ed.), p. 729
“I was planning on writing a detailed review of several books on web security tonight, but the Obama collapse has superseded my best-laid plans. Here’s another open thread for this important topic, as America wrestles with the issue of whether it would be a good idea to elect a President with a 20-year history of associating with people who hate America.”
Charles Foster Johnson (born 1953) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: March 14, 2008
“I would hope that my books might help to counteract bleakness.”
Alexander McCall Smith (born 1948) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Kate Kellaway, "'You have to make sure things don't go to your head'", The Observer, 6 March 2005.
“Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea They thought great thoughts about liberty Poets wrote down words that did fit Writers wrote books Thinkers thought about it.”
Van Morrison (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fiction is just a constant torment, and an embarrassment. I loathe my fiction. I have a fantasy when I'm passing a bookstore that I could click my fingers and all my books would go blank, so that I could start again and get them right.”
John Banville (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When people say there is too much violence in [my books], what they are saying is there is too much reality in life.”
Joyce Carol Oates (born 1938) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New York Times (27 July 1980)