Books Quotes
Samuel Johnson is on this page more than once for good reason. In The Rambler (1750) he wrote that no place gives a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library. Boswell (1791) has him saying that a man ought to read just as inclination leads him, because what he reads as a task will do him little good. Alberto Manguel, Emerson and Northrop Frye are among the most-quoted writers here, which is what you would expect from people who spent their working lives reading.
Two entries are flagged as misattributed. The quip about a manuscript that is both good and original, with the good parts not original and the original parts not good, is credited to Johnson. “Rommel, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!” is credited to General Patton.
All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.
An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.
The whole subject-matter of exact science consists of pointer readings and similar indications.
I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.
Call me a nerd if you like, but I do find it hard to leave home without my laptop and a good book.
The truth of our relationship with the soil is written more clearly on the land than in any book.
A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book.