No one ever reads a book. He reads himself through books, either to discover or to control himself.
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.
Books cannot always please, however good;
Minds are not ever craving for their food.
If you go home with someone and they don't have books, don't fuck them.
Thou art a plant sprung up to wither never,
But like a laurel to grow green for ever.
To my mind there are no advantages and many disadvantages in lectures compared with reading.
Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.
How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.