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.
Unlearned men of books assume the care,
As eunuchs are the guardians of the fair.
And better had they ne'er been born,
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.
'Tis pleasant, sure, to see one's name in print;
A book's a book, although there's nothing in't.
Whatever we read from intense curiosity gives us a model of how we should always read.
The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books.
If we encountered a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he read.
Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.
The death of Dr. Hudson is a loss to the republick of letters.