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Alberto Manguel on Books

born 1948 Argentina

← All quotes by Alberto Manguel

14 quotes

Books read in a public library never have the same flavour as books read in the attic or the kitchen.

A History of Reading (1996)

A society can exist - many do exist - without writing, but no society can exist without reading.

A History of Reading (1996)

The association of books with their readers is unlike any other between objects and their users.

A History of Reading (1996)

From its very start, reading is writings apotheosis.

A History of Reading (1996)

I quickly learned that reading is cumulative and proceeds by geometric progression: each new reading builds upon whatever the reader has read before.

A History of Reading (1996)

A book brings its own history to the reader.

A History of Reading (1996)

One can transform a place by reading in it.

A History of Reading (1996)

I never talked to anyone about my reading; the need to share came afterwords.

A History of Reading (1996)

Possessing these books has become all important to me, because I have become jealous of the past.

A History of Reading (1996)

I know that something dies when i give up my books, and that my memory keeps going back to them with mournful nostalgia.

A History of Reading (1996)

Socrates affirmed that only that which the reader already knows can be sparked by a reading, and that the knowledge cannot be acquired through dead letters.

A History of Reading (1996)

Gutenberg Bible
Possessing these books has become all important to me, because I have become jealous of the past.

We read to understand, or to begin to understand. We cannot do but to read. Reading almost as much as breathing, is our essential function.

A History of Reading (1996)

"reading is at the beginning of the social contract"

A History of Reading (1996)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Alberto Manguel (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.