A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.
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.
The book is the only medium left that hasn’t been corrupted by the profane.
The reading public isn't born that doesn't think foreigners are either funny or faintly sinister.
It is in literature that the concrete outlook of humanity receives its expression.
Those who yearn for the defeat of their enemy are said to wish that he might write a book.
Ignorance, which in behavior mitigates a fault, is, in literature, a capital offense.
The happiest and most glorious hours of my life with books have been with German books.
After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
Of all the needs a book has, the chief need is that it be readable.
What worthwhile book after the Pentateuch has been written by a committee?
If someone can relate my guitar solo to an exercise in a book … that's no fun at all.