Brain Quotes Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.     Albert Einstein This paperback is very interesting, but I find it will never replace a hardcover book - it makes a very poor doorstop.     Alfred Hitchcock The covers of this book are too far apart.     Ambrose Bierce You can cover a great deal of country in books.     Andrew Lang There's a certain kind of conversation you have from time to time at parties in New York about a new book. The word "banal" sometimes rears its by-now banal head; you say "underedited," I say "derivative." The conversation goes around and around various literary criticisms, and by the time it moves on one thing is clear: No one read the book; we just read the reviews.     Anna Quindlen Wear the old coat and buy the new book.     Austin Phelps Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books.     Bell Hooks Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.     Charles Caleb Colton I've never known any trouble that an hour's reading didn't assuage.     Charles De Secondat Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counsellors, and the most patient of teachers.     Charles W. Eliot There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.     Christopher Morley It was a book to kill time for those who like it better dead.     Dame Rose Macaulay Books...are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development.     Dorothy L. Sayers This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.     Dorothy Parker Don't join the book burners. Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book...     Dwight D. Eisenhower My personal hobbies are reading, listening to music, and silence.     Edith Sitwell Most new books are forgotten within a year, especially by those who borrow them.     Evan Esar 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.     Ezra Pound A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.     G. K. Chesterton A room without books is like a body without a soul.     G. K. Chesterton There is a great deal of difference between an eager man who wants to read a book and the tired man who wants a book to read.     G. K. Chesterton Woe be to him that reads but one book.     George Herbert From the moment I picked up your book until I laid it down, I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it.     Groucho Marx I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.     Groucho Marx Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.     Groucho Marx Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.     Harold Bloom How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book.     Henry David Thoreau The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring the accusation of being arbitrary, is that it be interesting.     Henry James The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, And all the sweet serenity of books.     Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?     Henry Ward Beecher Resolve to edge in a little reading every day, if it is but a single sentence. If you gain fifteen minutes a day, it will make itself felt at the end of the year.     Horace Mann Never judge a book by its movie.     J. W. Eagan Oh for a book and a shady nook...     John Wilson Never read a book through merely because you have begun it.     John Witherspoon Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.     Kathleen Norris Do give books - religious or otherwise - for Christmas. They're never fattening, seldom sinful, and permanently personal.     Lenore Hershey People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.     Logan Pearsall Smith Learn as much by writing as by reading.     Lord Acton When I step into this library, I cannot understand why I ever step out of it.     Marie de Sevigne Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.     Mark Twain Just the omission of Jane Austen's books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it.     Mark Twain The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.     Mark Twain When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.     Michel de Montaigne I have read your book and much like it.     Moses Hadas Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it.     Moses Hadas This book fills a much-needed gap.     Moses Hadas There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written or badly written.     Oscar Wilde Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.     P. J. O'Rourke Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.     Paxton Hood Reading this book is like waiting for the first shoe to drop.     Ralph Novak In the highest civilization, the book is still the highest delight. He who has once known its satisfactions is provided with a resource against calamity.     Ralph Waldo Emerson A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.     Robertson Davies To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.     Robertson Davies A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.     Salman Rushdie I read part of it all the way through.     Samuel Goldwyn Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for avoiding thought.     Sir Arthur Helps Read not to contradict and confute…nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider.     Sir Francis Bacon 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.     Sir Francis Bacon Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.     Sir Richard Steele Live always in the best company when you read.     Sydney Smith I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.     Upton Sinclair The multitude of books is making us ignorant.     Voltaire Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.     W. H. Auden When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me.     W. Somerset Maugham Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom.     William Shakespeare Previous Subject - Boredom | Next Subject - Bureaucracy