book - quotes

John Milton, 1608-1674

was an English poet

Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are; nay they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.

Bible

Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.

Henry David Thoreau, 1817-1862

was an US Transcendentalist author

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.

Kurt Vonnegut, 1922-2007

was an US novelist

I am eternally grateful.. for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else might be going on.

( “Timequake”, 1997 )

(Julius Henry) "Groucho" Marx, 1890-1977

was an American comedian and film star

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, 1804-1881

was a British politician

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is to write a book about it.

Oscar (Fingall O'Flahertie Wills) Wilde, 1854-1900

was an Irish dramatist, novelist, and poet

He has never written a single book, so you can imagine how much he knows.

( “The Importance of Being Earnest”, 1895 )

Augustine Birrell, 1850-1933

was an English politician, barrister, academic and author

There were no books in Eden, and there will be none in heaven.

( “Gossip in a Library” )

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882

was an US essayist and poet

Tis the good reader that makes the good book.

Ezra (Weston Loomis) Pound, 1885-1972

was an US poet

Properly, we should read for power. Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one's hand.