Quotes about Reading

Here is an archive of the quotes that we have posted on our main page in the “Quote of the Week” section of our sidebar. Leave us a comment if you have favorite quotes or if you think you have a quote that you think we should add!

“Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that [reading] opened.”
Malcom X

“The journey of a lifetime starts with the turning of a page.”  ~ Rachel Anders

“If you are going to get anywhere in life, you have to read a lot of books.”  Roald Dahl

” The purpose of a storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you questions to think upon.”              ~ Brandon Sanderson

“Books are the plane and the train and the road.  They are the destination and the journey.  They are home.”  Anna Quindlen

“In the words of Agatha Swanburne, founder of Swanburne Academy, ‘Every book is judged by its cover until it is read.'”
-Mary Rosewood, “Book 1; The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place”

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s to dark to read.”
-Groucho Marx

“There’s something good in every book, but sometimes you just have to look for it.”
-Anonymus

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
-Lemony Snicket

“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested throughly.”
-Cornelia Funk

“There is more treasure in books, than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.”
-Walt Disney

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
-Fredrick Douglas

“The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t.”
-Mark Twain

“It is better to read a little and ponder a lot than to read a lot and ponder a little.”
-Dennis Parsons Burkitt

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That’s why they call it the present.”
-Winnie the Pooh (aka A.A. Milne) **Not really about reading, but we like it anyway**

“When you sell a man a book you don’t sell just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue – you sell him a whole new life.”
-Christopher Morley

“A book is like a garden, carried in the pocket.”
-Chinese Proverb

“You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.”
-Paul Sweeney

“Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled, ‘This could change your life.'”
-Helen Exley

“We read to know we are not alone.”
-C.S. Lewis

“I was reading a book…’history of glue’…I couldn’t put it down.
-Tim Vine

“If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”
-Toni Morrison

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”
-Harry S. Truman

“What word in the English language has three consecutive double letters? Answer: Bookkeeper.”
-Anonymous

“Reading takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.”
-Hazel Rochman

“When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story’s voice makes everything its own.”
-John Berger

“The knowledge that a good book awaits one at the end of a day, makes that a better day.”
-Unknown

“A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.”
-Mark Twain

“So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall.”
— Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.”
-Robertson Davies 

“Books had instant replay long before televised sports”
-Bern Williams

“To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”
-Edmund Burke

“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”
-Mason Cooley

“A reader lives a thousand lives, before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”
-George R. R. Martin, A Dance With Dragons

“I cannot remember the books I have read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.”
-James Bryce

“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.”
-Oscar Wilde

“Never judge a book by its movie.”
-J.W. Eagan

“Wear the old coat and buy the new book.”
-Austin Phelps

“Listen to the mustn’t child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossible, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”
-Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends

One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”
George R.R. Martin from A Dance with Dragons

13 thoughts on “Quotes about Reading

  1. I give my grandchildren books for every special day in their lives. I often write quotes on the inside about the joy of reading and then sign my name and the year and special occasion. They then not only have an amazing book but a keepsake. We read together whenever we are in each other’s presence.
    Books opened up my entire world as a child and continue to allow me to disappear into their pages and leave the stresses of life behind.
    Thanks for the amazing quotes……

  2. Great website. Was looking for a quote to write in my grandson’s book. ..I recently bought him White Fang for his 7th birthday, engourging him to read. I picked the quote by Groucho Marx. I know my grandson will get a laugh out of that. Thanks.

  3. Congratulations!
    Can you tell us more? It would be interesting to know how our blog helped you out.

  4. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
    ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

    I don’t know about you Matt but I was missing the read aloud book at night at the beach house. I didn’t realize how special that was until the house full of teenagers were no longer interested! Maybe next year, we can try again?

  5. I am glad you did too. Matt and I have been friends for 6 years. It was his idea to start this blog in 5th grade and we have been meeting almost weekly since then to share our love of reading and books with others. What an honor to be mentioned in the same comment as your grandmother. What a wonderful thing she set in motion for Wilmer, Texas. The love of reading is alive and well in our community as well. Let us hope we can keep it going and spreading so all children have the chance to dream. Thank you so much for sharing your story. It means a great deal to us.

  6. My favorite is …”anything can happen, child. Anything can be.” Shel Silverstein

    I think reading is where “anything” waits to be discovered, challenged, owned. My grandmother felt that way and it was that believe that drove her to, with the help of the women, in the small Texas town in which she lived, raise money to start a library. They went door to door coffee tins and mayonnaise jars in hand collect whatever people could spare. She then talked the owner of the only supermarket in the town to let them have “three shelves”. A dream, shared by many, was put on a shelf more than 50 years ago. Yes, a deserted post office was later repurposed for a library and this year a children’s reading room will be added onto that library in Wilmer, Texas. It will be in memory of my Grandmother, Katye Lynn Ballard but will honor all those women who believed in reading and creating “anything” they could to enrich the lives of children. Thanks for allowing me to go on about her. I think what you have here is a library in another form…I’m glad I found you!

  7. Thanks!
    You are the first person to comment with a quote! Great. That is an awesome quote. It really makes someone think about books, like we hope our quotes do. Your quote will definitely be put on our “Quotes about Reading” page! 🙂
    Bye,
    -Matt

  8. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to check out your blog. It is awesome and i love the way it looks! I love this quote, but i forget who said it (i will get back to you on that)

    The knowledge that a good book awaits one at the end of a day, makes that a better day.

  9. My favorite quote is:
    “When you sell a man a book you don’t sell just 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue – you sell him a whole new life”
    When I read it, I had an aha! moment, because I never had thought about or realized that before.
    Happy Vacation! 🙂
    ~Matt

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