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.
How much of the full heart must be
A seal'd book at whose contents we tremble ?
What sense of superiority it gives one to escape reading some book which every one else is reading.
It is a funny view of the world that a book can cause riots.
Let your house
Be spacious more than splendid, and be books
And busts your most conspicuous furniture.
Books ain't no good. A guy needs somebody — to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody.
The only reason I read a book is because I cannot see and converse with the man who wrote it.
"A year ago, I turned the final page of The Book of the Dead. I don't feel young any more."
My opponent is tough but I'm tougher, in fact I wrote the book about toughness!
People don't get their morality from their reading matter: they bring their morality to it.