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.
I love everything that's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines.
You write with ease to show your breeding,
But easy writing's curst hard reading.
No efforts of mine could avail to make the book easy reading.
Literature is the effort of man to indemnify himself for the wrongs of his condition.
Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publication.
Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.