Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,161,747 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Books and reading
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“’Tis in books the chief Of all perfections to be plain and brief.”
Samuel Butler (poet) (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a kind of physiognomy in the titles of books no less than in the faces of men, by which a skilful observer will as well know what to expect from the one as the other.”
Samuel Butler (poet) (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man has sufficient cause for tears without adding to them by books.”
Honoré de Balzac (misattributed) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Man has sufficient cause for tears without adding to the Ultramarine of Life by Bookes. — [Unnamed] editor's introduction, Love Ballads of the Sixteenth Century (Shop Roycroft, 1897; reprinted 2006), p. 7
“In life, as in chess, one’s own pawns block one’s way. A man’s very wealth, ease, leisure, children, books, which should help him to win, more often checkmate him.”
Charles Buxton (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Good-breeding, or true politeness, is the art of showing men by external signs the internal regard we have for them. It arises from good sense, improved by good company. It must be acquired by practice and not by books.”
Stonewall Jackson (misattributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Educators everywhere must seek new ways to promote the idea that learning is something a student does with books and materials, and a teacher who cares; that learning can happen in college and outside; and that a student's intellectual growth depends far less on geography (which college) than on what advantage he takes of the opportunities which surround him wherever he is.”
Eugene S. Wilson (attributed) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What's Going On in Schools and Colleges", Kiplinger's Personal Finance, April 1961, p. 31
“My secret desire is for the whole world to eventually play games and for games to have the kind of influence that books and movies do. Games are a great place for the planet's collective subconscious to grow as we further our understanding of each other.”
Jeremy Soule (attributed) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jeremy Soule Interview (June 04, 2002).
“From the hour of the invention of printing, books, and not kings, were to rule the world. Weapons forged in the mind, keen-edged, and brighter than a sunbeam, were to supplant the sword and battle-axe.”
Edwin Percy Whipple (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have carefully and regularly perused the Holy Scriptures, and am of opinion that the volume contains more sublimity, purer morality, more important history, and finer strains of eloquence, than can be collected from all other books, in whatever language they may have been written.”
William Jones (philologist) (attributed) first seen 1895 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, ed., Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 31
“It's fine if the law bans books because government won't really enforce it.”
Elena Kagan (misattributed) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reported as having been said by Kagan during the Supreme Court oral argument in the Citizens United case in September, 2009; however, this quote does not appear in the actual transcript of the oral argument.
“Experience converts us to ourselves when books fail us.”
Amos Bronson Alcott (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Observation more than books, experience rather than persons, are the prime educators.”
Amos Bronson Alcott (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The king, observing with judicious eyes The state of both his universities, To Oxford sent a troop of horse, and why? That learned body wanted loyalty; To Cambridge books, as very well discerning How much that loyal body wanted learning.”
Joseph Trapp (attributed) first seen 1782 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Epigram "by an Oxonian", sent from Oxford to Cambridge, as quoted in John Nichols's Biographical and Literary Anecdotes (1782), p. 462
“Bitter knew her name was heavy, but she hadn’t minded, because it was honest. That was something she’d taught Jam—that a lot of things were manageable as long as they were honest […] But Jam trusted her mother for those brutal truths, and that’s why home was the first place she brought the books with the angels in them.”
Akwaeke Emezi (born 1987) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Except few from Assam, not many have heard about Mula Gabharu! She was one of the few warriors who fought bravely in battlefield against Muslim invaders. She killed two Mohammedan Lieutenants in battle until she was treacherously killed by the enemy in the same battlefield. Like many other unsung warriors of India, she finds no place in Indian History text books.”
Mula Gabharu (1486–1532) said by 1532 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rawal M. S. & Rawal Y. S. (2019). Saffron swords. Garuda Prakashan.
“There are some books and characters so pleasant, or rather which contain so much that is pleasant, that criticism is perplexed or silent. The hounds are perpetually at fault among the sweet-scented herbs and flowers that grow at the base of Etna.”
John Frederick Boyes (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Otto Hahn is a figure of world history. But he possesses none of the attributes of the traditional luminaries in history books. His slight, somewhat bowed figure, which with its high brow has the effect of his features having been carved, with his expression of searching honesty and critical inviolability, have something of a boundless nobility about them.”
Otto Hahn (1879–1968) first seen 1957 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Observer, London, June 9th, 1957.
“This Duhamel has invented an infinity of machines which serve no purpose, has written and translated a multitude of books on agriculture, of which it is not known if they have any useful result, that is still awaited.”
Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau (1700–1782) first seen 1767 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Denis Diderot, Oeuvres complètes de Diderot: revues sur les éditions originales, comprenant ce qui a été publié à diverses époques et les manuscrits inédits, conservés à la Bibliothèque de l'Ermitage, notices, notes, ta…
“Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The gentleman is not in your books.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Small have continual plodders ever won Save base authority from others' books. These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights That give a name to every fixed star Have no more profit of their shining nights Than those that walk and wot not what they are.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“From women's eyes this doctrine I derive: They sparkle still the right Promethean fire; They are the books, the arts, the academes, That show, contain, and nourish all the world.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The painful warrior famoused for fight, After a thousand victories, once foil'd, Is from the books of honour razed quite, And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) said by 1616 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“He comes not in my books.”
Beaumont And Fletcher (active around 197) bartlett, Public domain source
“Deep vers'd in books, and shallow in himself.”
John Milton (1608–1674) said by 1674 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books.”
John Milton (1608–1674) said by 1674 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The spectacles of books.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“In books, or work, or healthful play.”
Isaac Watts (1674–1748) said by 1748 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes, Tenets with books, and principles with times.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Next o'er his books his eyes begin to roll, In pleasing memory of all he stole.”
Alexander Pope (1688–1744) said by 1744 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Whence is thy learning? Hath thy toil O'er books consum'd the midnight oil?”
John Gay (1685–1732) said by 1732 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“I love everything that 's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.”
Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) said by 1774 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Here the heart May give a useful lesson to the head, And Learning wiser grow without his books.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. Books are not seldom talismans and spells.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Proverbs, like the sacred books of each nation, are the sanctuary of the intuitions.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“The author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.”
Benjamin Disraeli (earl Beaconsfield) bartlett, Public domain source
“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books.”
Henry W. Longfellow (1807–1882) said by 1882 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“It is not reasonings that are wanted now; for there are books stuffed full of stoical reasonings.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”
The Bible (active around 812) bartlett, Public domain source
“My poetry collection Ronkedoor — about a solitary elephant bull that has been driven out of the herd — was written as a way of saying goodbye to my father after a motor accident. He spent many years doing research on the tsetse fly in Kenya. Our home was always full of books, stories, maps and artworks from Africa.”
Betsie van Niekerk first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ... so ook op die aarde: ’n onderhoud met Betsie van Niekerk. Interview by Estelle Kruger, LitNet, 3 April 2024.
“Children are the most important thing. Then books and then network of friends and supporters and people who work with us.”
Lesley Beake wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A letter depends on how you read it, a melody on how you sing it.”
Isaac Leib Peretz (1852–1915) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Gilgul fun a Nign, 1901. Alle Verk, vi. 33.
“When the rose reigns, and locks with ointments shine, Let rigid Cato read these lines of mine.”
Robert Herrick (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Laws, as we read in ancient sages, Have been like cobwebs in all ages: Cobwebs for little flies are spread, And laws for little folks are made; But if an insect of renown, Hornet or beetle, wasp or drone, Be caught in quest of sport or plunder, The flimsy fetter flies in sunder.”
James Beattie (1735–1803) first seen 1776 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Wolf and Shepherds (1776).
“Whatever you feed yourself, is what's going to come out. You could say life is like that, Scripture is the answer to that. I love to read, I love the Bible, I have a bad back because of it.”
Brooke Fraser (born 1983) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: What a Beautiful Name' singer Brooke Ligertwood says her worship songs are inspired by 'the manure of life' Christian Today (July 9, 2018).
“every person in this country, from high school to the postgraduate level, should read W. E. B. Du Bois's Black Reconstruction in America. In the 1960s we confronted issues that should have been resolved in the 1860s. And I'm making this point because what happens when 2060 rolls around? Will people still be addressing these same issues?”
Angela Davis (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every evil is some good spelt backwards, and in it the wise know how to read Wisdom.”
Coventry Patmore (1823–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Prague, big red posters were put up on which one could read that seven Czechs had been shot today. I said to myself, 'If I had to put up a poster for every seven Poles shot, the forests of Poland would not be sufficient to manufacture the paper.”
Hans Frank (1900–1946) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Hans Frank in a 1940 interview, published in the Völkischer Beobachter on 6 June 1940