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The only reason I read a book is because I cannot see and converse with the man who wrote it.

— Woodrow Wilson

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Notes from Wikiquote

Unsourced variant: I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.

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Books

More quotes by Woodrow Wilson

The success of a party means little except when the Nation is using that party for a large and definite purpose.

No country can afford to have its prosperity originated by a small controlling class.

The New Freedom (1913)

Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American.

You deal in the raw material of opinion, and, if my convictions have any validity, opinion ultimately governs the world.

Power consists in one's capacity to link his will with the purpose of others, to lead by reason and a gift of cooperation.

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Woodrow Wilson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.