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.
No one should be embarrassed at having to look things up in a book—it’s a great habit to develop.
"Write your own book instead of reading someone else's book about success."
A single conversation across the table with a wise man is better than ten years' study of books.
Literature is a vast bazaar where customers come to purchase everything except mirrors.
I'm trying to write a book about what it means to be human, to grow up, to suffer and learn.