Books & reading

Quotes about books & reading

Writers on the pleasure of reading, for a bookmark, a library display, a book-club invitation or a note tucked inside a gift. Jane Austen declares there is no enjoyment like reading, Emily Dickinson says there is no frigate like a book, and Francis Bacon sorts books into those to be tasted, swallowed or chewed. Thoreau has three lines from the Reading chapter of Walden, and Wilde and Austen add a little wit. Every quote is public domain and copied word for word from the original book.

11 passages

Wit & one-liners
I declare, after all, there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.
Jane AustenPride and Prejudice, 1813 · Chapter XI
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Joy & wonder
There is no frigate like a bookTo take us lands away,Nor any coursers like a pageOf prancing poetry.This traverse may the poorest takeWithout oppress of toll;How frugal is the chariotThat bears a human soul!
Emily DickinsonPoems by Emily Dickinson, 1891
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Wisdom & life
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
Francis BaconEssays, 1625 · Of Studies
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Openings & first lines
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice “without pictures or conversations?”
Lewis CarrollAlice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865 · Chapter I: Down the Rabbit-Hole
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