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Best Quotes About Reading
This post contains the best quotes about reading!
If you are looking for the most inspirational quotes about reading and books, look no further. These are some of the best insightful, thought-provoking, witty, and beautiful quotes from authors, poets, artists, and other famous figures about the magic of reading.
Read on for some of the best quotes about reading and books you will love.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only once.” – George R. R. Martin
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” – Lemony Snicket
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” – Harper Lee
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” – C. S. Lewis
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” – Frederick Douglas
“We read to know we’re not alone.” – William Nicholson
“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
“Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.” – Louis L’Amour
“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” – Walt Disney
“Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.” – P.J. O’Rourke
Quotes About Books
“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
“Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.” – Jane Smiley
“The world was hers for the reading.” – Betty Smith
“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” – Jim Rohn
“Think before you speak. Read before you think.” – Fran Lebowitz
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.” – Diane Duane
“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” – Oscar Wilde
“People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.” – Logan Pearsall Smith
“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” – Sir Francis Bacon
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” – Cicero
Quotes for Readers
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King
“People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.” – Logan Pearsall Smith
“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” – Fernando Pessoa
“It’s not that I don’t like people. It’s just that when I’m in the company of others – even my nearest and dearest – there always comes a moment when I’d rather be reading a book.” – Maureen Corrigan
“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” – Henry David Thoreau
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss
“Sleep is good, he said, and books are better.” – George R. R. Martin
“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” – Mortimer J. Adler
“There is nothing more luxurious than eating while you read—unless it be reading while you eat.” – E. Nesbit
“Wear the old coat and buy the new book.” – Austin Phelps
Quotes About Literature
“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.” – Abraham Lincoln
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” – Victor Hugo
“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.” – Mary Wortley Montagu
“Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.” – Gustave Flaubert
“I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.” – Jorge Luis Borges
“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.” – Descartes
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” – Bill Watterson
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” – Charles W. Eliot
“I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.” – Roald Dahl
“A book is a gift you can open again and again.” – Garrison Keillor
Quotes for Book Lovers
“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” – J. K. Rowling
“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” – Carl Sagan
“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” – Erasmus
“Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading.” – Lena Dunham
“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” – C. S. Lewis
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” – Jhumpa Lahiri
“Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.” – E. B. White
“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” – William Styron
“Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.” – Ezra Pound
“Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.” – Mary Schmich
Quotes About Reading and Books
I hope you enjoyed these quotes about reading!
Which one is your favorite? Are there any quotes about reading and books that I missed that you think should be added to the list? Let me know in the comments below!
Related: How to Read More: 10 Tips That Help Me Read 70+ Books a Year

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