Famous Book Quote

Famous Book Quote

Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in, you can't expect an angel to look out.
Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860, German Philosopher Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.
Arthur Schopenhauer 1788

To buy books would be a good thing if we also could buy the time to read them.
Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860, German Philosopher

Without books the development of civilization would have been impossible. They are the engines of change, windows on the world, ''Lighthouses'' as the poet said ''erected in the sea of time.'' They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind, Books are humanity in print.
Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860, German Philosopher

O, let my books be then the eloquence and dumb presages of my speaking breast.
William Shakespeare 1564-1616, British Poet, Playwright, Actor

Here, my dear Lucy, hide these books. Quick, quick! Fling ''Peregrine Pickle'' under the toilette --throw ''Roderick Random'' into the closet --put ''The Innocent Adultery'' into ''The Whole Duty of Man''; thrust ''Lord Aimworth'' under the sofa! cram ''Ovid'' behind the bolster; there --put ''The Man of Feeling'' into your pocket. Now for them.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan 1751-1816, Anglo-Irish Dramatist

What is the most precious, the most exciting smell awaiting you in the house when you return to it after a dozen years or so? The smell of roses, you think? No, moldering books.
Andre Sinyavsky

No furniture is so charming as books.
Sydney Smith 1771-1845, British Writer, Clergyman

A multitude of books distracts the mind.
Socrates BC 469-399, Greek Philosopher of Athens

A book is like a man -- clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.
John Steinbeck 1902-1968, American Author

The age of the book is almost gone.
George Steiner 1929-, French-born American Critic, Novelist

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life.
Robert Louis Stevenson 1850-1895, Scottish Essayist, Poet, Novelist

Why pay a dollar for a bookmark? Why not use the dollar for a bookmark?
Fred Stoller

A great book should leave you with many experiences and slightly exhausted at the end. You should live several lives while reading it.
William Styron 1925-, American Novelist

Most books, like their authors, are born to die; of only a few books can it be said that death has no dominion over them; they live, and their influence lives forever.
J. Swartz

Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of the ages through which they have passed
Sir William Temple 1628-1699, British Diplomat, Essayist

Who ever converses among old books will be hard to please among the new.
Sir William Temple 1628-1699, British Diplomat, Essayist

What is a diary as a rule? A document useful to the person who keeps it. Dull to the contemporary who reads it and invaluable to the student, centuries afterwards, who treasures it.
Helen Terry

If a secret history of books could be written, and the author's private thoughts and meanings noted down alongside of his story, how many insipid volumes would become interesting, and dull tales excite the reader!
William M. Thackeray 1811-1863, Indian-born British Novelist

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends.
Dawn Adams

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.
Joseph Addison 1672-1719, British Essayist, Poet, Statesman

Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.
Joseph Addison 1672-1719, British Essayist, Poet, Statesman

In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.
Mortimer J. Adler 1902-, American Educator, Philosopher

Never cease loving a person, and never give up hope for him, for even the prodigal son who had fallen most low, could still be saved, the bitterest enemy and also he who was your friend could again be your friend, love that has grown cold can kindle.
Soren Kierkegaard

Love is whatever you can still betray. Betrayal can only happen if you love.John LeCarre



Have any of our friends got off the Island with their families, or what must they submit to? Despotism or destruction, I fear, is their fate.William Floyd

"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked."""
Bernard Meltzer