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Books and reading
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“The modern school with its many books, but without systematic lectures, turns out many graduates who are lacking in retentiveness and no sooner than the sound of the words has left their teachers' lips, the subject been forgotten; and if they are called upon to explain the theme, it is reduced to an incomprehensible mass of meaningless words.”
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874–1938) said by 1938 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the nice things I like to do is to get bilingual books, both in Yiddish and now in Polish...I have, like, poetry which is in Polish on one side and English on the other. And that's sort of an interesting way, also, for me to think about poetry and look at things.”
Irena Klepfisz (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“During that period (around 1906) I had studied two more books, which helped to catapult me into socialist activities. One was the Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft; the other was Women and Socialism by August Bebel.”
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not one of those books that ignore us could have been written without our shopping, baking, mending, ironing, typing, making coffee, comforting. Without our caring for the children, minding the store, getting in the crop, making their businesses pay. This is our story, and the truth of our lives will overthrow them.”
Aurora Levins Morales (born 1954) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriquenas (1997)
“She taught me to love the women: Jane Austen, Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey, Virginia Woolf, and later we would trade the titles of new books on the phone: Doris Lessing, Agnes Smedley, Charlotte Bronte's Shirley, June Jordan, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker. (Introduction/Acknowledgements)”
Aurora Levins Morales (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It wasn’t until the ‘30s that Spanish began to be taught in the schools – in the high schools. And there was a woman by the name of Esther Caravajal who wrote one of the first text books for the teaching of Spanish in the schools here.”
Emma Tenayuca (1916–1999) said by 1999 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education does not bring on revolutions; but consciousness of our own oppression and struggle might. Unfortunately formal education and political consciousness do not usually coincide. Even formal education in Marxism-Leninism tends to make people think that they know more than they really know. When we think of what it is that politicizes people it is not so much books or ideas but experience.”
Irene Peslikis (1943–2002) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Resistences to consciousness" (1969)
“Bless poetry books that cross oceans in battered envelopes, bearing small flames of words.”
Lisa Suhair Majaj (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It seems to follow that we know as much and as little about the passing of Thomas Vaughan as might be expected from his literary importance and repute at that period... His little books could have appealed to a few only, though it may be granted that occult philosophy was a minor fashion of the time.”
Arthur Edward Waite (1857–1942) first seen 1919 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Works of Thomas Vaughan: Eugenius Philalethes, (1919) Biographical preface, p. xiii
“I am not afraid of you, my friend, I am afraid of your ghost. After death you may stalk my books, my epitaphs, my biographies.”
Tapan Kumar Pradhan (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But as his poise in the infamous video reveals, Cooper is well-suited to this teachable moment for America. As a gay black birder, and as someone who has helped comic books become more inclusive, he knows the cultural forces that try to reduce him to something he’s not — and has the will and the confidence to defy them.”
Christian Cooper (born 1963) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: David Betancourt on 23 June 2020 in WashPo article
“Besides,” she added, “the Madonna has been very stupid.” “Oh? In what way?” “She forgot the prime axiom of a whorehouse: that there’s a difference between love and sex. Her job is dispensing sex, and instead she fell in love with the man who is rigging the Comet’s books. It was a very unprofessional thing to do.”
Mike Resnick (1942–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“At last it was understood why if I come to your party, at 8pm I had to go home to bed and to take my pain killers; because when you live with endometriosis, you live with pain. I have a library in my home. It is a library about pain. I have so many books on pain cure”
Nike Oshinowo (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The winter of ignorance could come, the cold stoked by a thousand bonfires. There would always be loveless souls ready to kindle such blazes with their neighbors’ books, or dreams, or children.”
Esther Friesner (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think the law should give chance to religious people who may want to join the civil service but because of their religious belief may allow them to take an oath on a flag or religious books .”
Suzanne Mukayijore first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: https://www.ktpress.rw/2020/12/year-2020-how-covid-19-changed-business-at-rwanda-parliament/ ( KT PRess , December 26, 2020 )
“That’s the lesson of the civil rights movement. All the earlier struggles, the Montgomery bus movement, the Brown v Board of Education decision led up to it. And what we see in the history books is a pallid imitation of what it was really like.”
Dorothy Zellner (born 1938) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The consequences of a Roe reversal would be devastating. Over 20 states would prohibit abortion outright. Eleven states —including Mississippi — currently have trigger bans on the books which would instantaneously ban abortion if Roe is overturned”
Nancy Northup (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books open up new worlds for us emotionally, geographically, culturally; by encouraging understanding, they help us to develop more compassionate, rational, tolerant societies, giving rise to a more broad-minded world.”
Irene Staunton wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Don’t Cook the books be thorough in all you do.”
Nse Ikpe-Etim (born 1974) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books are for pleasure and entertainment. For escape. They are also for information, discovery, guidance, discussion, debate and so much else besides”
Ellah Wakatama Allfrey (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Books are about expressing ourselves as human beings, connecting with each other, telling our stories and imagining new worlds and new possibilities”
Ellah Wakatama Allfrey (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I love being by the beach because I participate in all water sports, especially surfing, I love music and I love books of all types.”
Kim Basinger (born 1953) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: on what she loves doing in 2020.
“I have always loved writing and I'm getting more into it these days, especially children's books.”
Kim Basinger (born 1953) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: on taking up new hobby in 2020.
“As writers we do it for the love of the art, but to then get nothing out of it while every street corner is littered with your books, it is heartbreaking and demoralising”
Virginia Phiri (born 1954) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Taboos are my niche: Virginia Phiri,10 November 2014
“Everywhere in the ancient Hindu books we find the maxims of that pure and sound morality which is founded on the nature of man as a rational and social being….”
Maria Graham (1785–1842) first seen 1814 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Graham, Maria, Letters on India, Longman, Hurst, etc., 1814.quoted from Jain, M. (editor) (2011). The India they saw: Foreign accounts. New Delhi: Ocean Books. Volume IV Chapter2
“We can't just talk about liturgical matters or translations of particular books of the Bible, as important as they are. We have to deal with the fact that people are suffering.”
George Vance Murry (1948–2020) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Calls for concrete action for justice follow bishops' meeting (17 November 2017) National Catholic Reporter
“One of my favorite poets is Lucille Clifton, author of a good number of fine books, including Blessing the Boats, Quilting, and Two-Headed Woman.”
Sheree Thomas (born 1972) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So trying to keep certain things off television or out of books is futile. That same energy should be applied to helping children develop their own capacities for judgment, taste and sensitivity, so that they know how to make decisions that are based, we hope, on positive values.”
John M. Culkin (1928–1993) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Conversation with John Culkin", Maria P. Robbins, Television and Children Journal, Summer, 1981
“Paris, that great but compact cosmopolitan and imperial city, has a strong claim to be considered the cradle of street photography. The city helped form this genre of photography and, equally, photography contributed to the formation of the city, as Parisians saw first their buildings and then themselves reflected in the many photographic photographic portraits constructed in magazines and books.”
Julian Stallabrass (born 1960) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Julian Stallabrass, Paris Pictured, 2002.; as cited in: Clive Scott, Street Photography: From Brassai to Cartier-Bresson. Routledge, 2020. p. 1
“Neither monumental buildings, nor winning football teams, nor spacious dormitories, nor expansive campuses, nor anxious administrators, nor ambitious plans ever taught a college student. Faculties teach. Books on the shelves and elaborate research projects concerned with esoteric subjects enrich the student mind only indirectly. Teachers teach.”
John Connally (1917–1993) said by 1993 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He thought that even a prophet, even a warrior, could not survive the ways of the Americans, especially the government with rules and words that kept human life at a distance and made it live by their regulations and books. (p219)”
Linda Hogan (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Right or wrong. For us, it is such a simple thing, only a matter of whether a wrong has been done, or someone harmed. But they have books filled with words, with rules about how the story can and cannot be spoken. There is not room enough, nor time, to search for the real story that lies beneath the rest." (p341)”
Linda Hogan (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For Native peoples, our systems of knowledge are not about beliefs but about ways of knowing and how we know, through experience itself. It is not what is taught in books, not in ordinary classes, but what lies beneath all the new ideas.”
Linda Hogan (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Soul loss is what happens as the world around us disappears...The cure for susto, soul sickness, is not in books. It is written in the bark of a tree, in the moonlit silence of night, in the bank of a river and the water's motion. The cure is outside ourselves.”
Linda Hogan (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“First books, for many people, seem to be sort of autobiographical incursions into who they are, and what it means to be who they are.”
Linda Hogan (writer) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even if my main product is webcomics, I know that there's a whole generation for whom a real author is someone who makes books.”
David Revoy (born 1981) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Droits d'auteur : ambiance poivrée dans la BD", David Revoy, interviewed by Libération, 9 September 2016 (read online)
“The idea which I carried out in the boys [sic] books was to give facts, interspersed by thrills and sensations, which would give the reader a comprehensive idea of the development of aviation. The thrills and sensations filled the boy's desire in that direction while he absorbed the facts.”
Henry H. Arnold (1886–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "HAP: Henry H. Arnold Military Aviator, Air Force History and Museums Program (1997)
“This manuscript undoubtedly belongs to the time when the ancient religion of the gymnosophists had begun to be corrupted; except for our own sacred books, it is the most respectable monument of belief in a single God. It is called Ezour Veidam: as if one were to say the true Veidam, the Veidam explained, the pure Veidam.”
Robert de Nobili (1577–1656) said by 1656 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Voltaire, about the allegation and story that Roberto de Nobili was the author of a forged document (fifth Veda). Quoted from Malhotra, R., Nīlakantan, A. (Princeton, N.J.). (2011). Breaking India: Western interventions…
“My books, my great friends, gaze down on me with quiet resentment, calling me to them.”
Anna Margolin (1887–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gentrification has put a new face on the neighborhood; upper-middle-class lesbians and gay men now cruise the streets, looking disdainfully at the house I grew up in because it doesn't fit their standards of elegance. But inside that house are the people who made me who I am. They're the people I write about in my books. And I write about them because they are heroic in”
Jewelle Gomez (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Tipu actually wrote to the Afghan king Jaman Shah and the Caliph of Turkey to invade India and establish the rule of Islam. In his infamous sack of the Mysore palace in 1796, he rounded up the entire palace library containing invaluable ancient Hindu palm-leaf manuscripts, inscriptions, papers, and books, and ordered them to be burnt as fuel to boil gram, which was then used to feed horses.”
S. L. Bhyrappa (1931–2025) said by 2025 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I would much rather be respected by the Indian community through my writing than to have my books reviewed in the New York Times.”
Wendy Rose (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Human Library is a library of people where readers can borrow human beings serving as open books and have conversations with them tapping into their experiences.”
Dora Francisca Edu-Buandoh (born 1962) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Personally I think the thing that will survive, as survives so many important figures, is the writing that they leave behind and he has left behind many books that he wrote when he was simply Joseph Ratzinger and they are standing the test of time quite well, in my view.”
Leo William Cushley (born 1961) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pope Benedict: Archbishop leads tribute to 'Bavarian gentleman' (31 December 2022) BBC
“My crime was daring to have books that the apartheid government deemed unhealthy for a native's mind.”
Mamphela Ramphele (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fiction books are ones that have been made up. Perhaps some of their elements are based on hints of truth, but they have been elaborated, fabricated, and used to embellish into a true story.”
May Ifeoma Nwoye (born 1956) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prof Nwoye speak on fiction books in 2017.
“I find myself gravitating towards what I call ‘bubble-gum books’. Nothing heavy, nothing super intellectual. Nothing that won a prize, or was, you know, shortlisted for some prestigious award. I want like the smarmy historical romances.”
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh I know! If it’s gonna be like an admin day then I'm updating my mailing list, updating my archive, working on proposals, searching for new opportunities, updating my artist statement, figuring out if I'm ready to tweak my website again, doing my books… all the things that come up basically running a business really.”
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I've noticed; it tends to be like a particular pool of books. If that doesn't work, it means I need something more like grounding. So I will restart a yearly ritual earlier than I had planned. For example, I reread all the Harry Potter's every year.”
Ayobola Kekere-Ekun (born 1993) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's me in this picture, I'm a Ukrainian writer. I have portraits of great Ukrainian poets on my bag. I look like I should be taking pictures of books, art, and my little son. But I document Russia's war crimes and listen to the sound of shelling, not poems. Why?”
Victoria Amelina (1986–2023) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A tweet note (4 June 2023) pinned to her Twitter account referring to her work documenting war crimes. It was reported following her death in July 2023 from injuries sustained after a Russian precision missile targeted …