logo

Quotes About Books

Jim Adams, Kurt's nephew, found "there was a definite disconnect between the kind of guy you would imagine Kurt must be from the tone of his books, the kind of guy who would say, 'God damn it, you got to be kind,' and the reality of his behavior on a daily basis. He was a complicated, difficult man.… I think he admired the idea of love, community, and family from a distance, but couldn't deal with the complicated emotional elements they included."142
~ Charles J. Shields
Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book! A message to us from the dead, — from human souls whom we never saw, who lived perhaps thousands of miles away; and yet these, on those little sheets of paper, speak to us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers.
~ Charles Kingsley
We ought to reverence books; to look on them as useful and mighty things. If they are good and true, whether they are about religion, politics, farming, trade, law, or medicine, they are the message of Christ, the maker of all things -- the teacher of all truth.
~ Charles Kingsley
Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book! A message from the dead - from human souls we never saw, who lived, perhaps, thousands of miles away. And yet these, in those little sheets of paper, speak to us, arouse us, terrify us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers.
~ Charles Kingsley
There is nothing more wonderful than a book. It may be a message to us from the dead, from human souls we never saw who lived perhaps thousands of miles away, and yet these little sheets of paper speak to us, arouse us, teach us, open our hearts and in turn open their hearts to us like brothers. Without books, God is silent, justice dormant, philosophy lame.
~ Charles Kingsley
Borrowers of books — those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes.
~ Charles Lamb
Borrowers of books --those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes.
~ Charles Lamb
I mean your borrowers of books - those mutilators of collections, spoilers of the symmetry of shelves, and creators of odd volumes.
~ Charles Lamb
A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face one of the few havens remaining where a man's mind can get both provocation and privacy.
~ Charles Langbridge Morgan
Hello? Oh, nothing... Just sort of hanging around... My brother? He's right here... He's reading... He's always reading... He has no life of his own, and he's a very boring person so he reads a lot... What's he reading? I don't know... She wants to know what you're reading..." "How to survive living in the same family with an annoying sister." "Ivanhoe.
~ Charles M. Schulz
The books talked about it [the heart] as if it were a sump pump stuck down in the muck and mire of somebody's backyard. Never in all my scientific reading did I encounter anything that talked about a broken heart. Never did I read anything about what the heart felt, how it felt or why it felt. Feeling and knowing weren't important, only understanding
~ Charles Martin
Most people enter a library and don't hear a thing. Eerie silence. I stand between the shelves and hear ten thousand conversations occurring all at once. Each ushering an invitation. The noise is raucous.
~ Charles Martin
Back home, I went to my closet and pulled out the old engineer's transit case stored there. When we were kids, Emma and I had found it in the attic, dusty and empty, and the leather strap used to carry it had a small cut in it. The tag on the top of the wooden-hinged lid read Circa 1907 . It was mostly weatherproof and offered plenty of room for the things I valued—like books.
~ Charles Martin
You unhinged your body from an opium addiction with a book?" She smiled. "Not just any book. A series of thirteen books by one author. I've read them twenty or thirty times each." "You've read one book twenty or thirty times?" "Actually, I've read thirteen books twenty-seven times.
~ Charles Martin
Tel est le sort facheux de tout livre preté - souvent il est perdu, toujours il est gaté
~ Charles Nodier
One to whom books are as strangers has not yet learned to live. He is a solitary, though he dwell amid a vast population. On the other hand, he to whom books are as friends possesses a Key to the Garden of Delights, where the purest pleasures are open for his entertainment, and where he has for his companions the master minds of all the ages.
~ Charles Noel Douglas
Don't mark up the Library's copy, you fool! Librarians are Unprankable. They'll track you down! They have skills!
~ Charles Ogden
I saw an infinity of such dreary evenings stretching out ahead of me. Trapped in a dirty old house with a grieving old woman and an irritable young one. And with only the books I had brought with me, most of which were still in my trunk anyway.
~ Charles Palliser
I fall in love with any girl who smells of library paste.
~ Charles Schulz
Beyond the formative effects of reading on the individuals composing society, the fact that they have read the same books gives them experiences and ideas in common. These constitute a kind of shorthand of ideas which helps make communication quicker and more efficient. That is what we mean when we say figuratively of another person, We speak the same language.
~ Charles Scribner, Jr.
There's a book called "A Dictionary of Angels." No one has opened it in fifty years, I know, because when I did, The covers creaked, the pages Crumbled. There I discovered The angels were once as plentiful As species of flies. The sky at dusk Used to be thick with them. You had to wave both arms Just to keep them away. Now the sun is shining Through the tall windows. The library is a quiet place. Angels and gods huddled In dark unopened books.
~ Charles Simic
Back before the internet we had a name for people who bought a single copy of our books and lent them to all their friends without charging: we called them "librarians".
~ Charles Stross
In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn't read all the time -- none, zero. You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads--and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out.
~ Charles T. Munger
In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a board subject matter area) who didn't read all the time - none, zero. You'd be amazed how much Warren reads - and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out.
~ Charles T. Munger