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25 Famous Quotes About Books

For many writers, books are the gateway to their craft. Many of us start off as readers first. I was a late bloomer but once I reached middle school and high school, I actually embraced the mandatory reading list. Some of those books, like Of Mice and Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Macbeth all make my favorite books list.

They say everyone has a story so it’s no wonder there are hundreds of thousands of titles published each and every year. I myself have two published collections of poetry available for world consumption.

I have gathered 25 of my favorite quotes about books. I thought I’d share them with you all to enjoy.

Famous Book Quotes

So many books, so little time.
― Frank Zappa

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not found pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.
― Jane Austen

Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
― Mark Twain

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

Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.
― Lemony Snicket

Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.
― John Green

Everybody does have a book in them, but in most cases that’s where it should stay.
— Christopher Hitchens

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.
― C.S. Lewis

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

There is no friend as loyal as a book.
― Ernest Hemingway

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.
― J.D. Salinger

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

A mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.
― George R.R. Martin

Books are the perfect entertainment: no commercials, no batteries, hours of enjoyment for each dollar spent. What I wonder is why everybody doesn’t carry a book around for those inevitable dead spots in life.
― Stephen King

Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this.
― Dave Eggers

I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.
― Sylvia Plath

Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.
― Sir Francis Bacon

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.
― James Baldwin

Books are like mirrors: if a fool looks in, you cannot expect a genius to look out.
― J.K. Rowling

What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.
― Neil Gaiman

I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.
― Arthur Conan Doyle

If a book about failures doesn’t sell, is it a success?
― Jerry Seinfeld

There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.
― Charles Dickens

The love of learning, the sequestered nooks,
And all the sweet serenity of books
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Clearly, these are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to quotes about books. Maybe I’ll work on a part 2 down the road. In the meantime, share your favorite book related quotes in the comments below



Published inInspirationModern Day Writers

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