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 had in a high degree excited us to self-activity, which is the best effect of any book.
Love's mysteries in souls do grow,
But yet the body is his book.
The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.
When I read it, I don't wince, which is all I ever ask for a book I write.
Heroes in books should be so much better than heroes got up for the world's common wear and tear