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.
Sydney Smith, 1771-1845
was an English essayist
Live always in the best company when you read.
Joseph Addison, 1672-1719
was an English essayist, poet, and politician
Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955
was an US (German-born) physicist
Isn't it strange that I who have written only unpopular books should be such a popular fellow?
James Baldwin, 1924-1987
was an US author
You think your pains and heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who have ever been alive.