Quotes About Literature

Books are the most mannerly of companions, accessible at all times, in all moods, frankly declaring the author's mind, without offense.

If a book is worth reading at all, it is worth reading more than once. Suspense is the lowest of excitants, designed to take your breath away when the brain and heart crave to linger in nobler enjoyment. Suspense drags you on; appreciation causes you to linger.

Nothing links man to man like the frequent passage from hand to hand of a good book.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

The habit of reading is the only enjoyment in which there is no alloy; it lasts when all other pleasures fade.

The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it.

'Sartor Resartus' is simply unreadable, and for me that always sort of spoils a book.

You should read it, though there is much that is skip-worthy.

The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.

When you read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before.

The most technologically efficient machine that man has ever invented is the book.

Literature is news that stays news.

Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.

Any book which is at all important should be re-read immediately.

It circulated for five years, through the halls of fifteen publishers, and finally ended up with Vanguard Press, which as you can see is rather deep into the alphabet.

The first book of the nation is the dictionary of its language.

I read part of it all the way through.

Oh that my words were now written! Oh that they were printed in a book!

I hate books; they teach us only to talk about what we do not know.

Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

The true university of these days is a collection of books.

I keep my books at the British Museum and at Mudies.

If a book is worth reading, it is worth buying.

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.