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49 Relatable, Bookish Quotes


Many people far smarter and wiser than me have said many clever, profound and winning things about the magic of books. Therefore, this list is dedicated to those wise words. I believe many of us can identify with these sentiments.


1. "I do believe something really magical can happen when you read a good book."

- J.K. Rowling, author


2. “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, academic and Harvard president


3. "That's the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet."

- Jhumpa Lahiri, author


4. "A book can open the mind, free the heart, and speak to the soul."

- Jason Ellis, author


5. “I am a part of everything that I have read.”

- Theodore Roosevelt, American President


6. "Once you learn to read, you will be forever free."

- Frederick Douglass, author and editor


7. "A reader lives a hundred lives before he dies."

- George R. R. Martin, author


8. "Where is human nature as weak as in a bookstore?"

. Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman and social reformer


9. "Books are uniquely portable magic."

- Stephen King, author


10. "I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library."

- Jorge Luis Borges, short-story writer


11. "There is no friend as loyal as a book."

- Ernest Hemingway, author


12. "A book is a dream you hold in your hands."

- Neil Gaiman, author


13. "Where the world is full of a thousand colors for those who love books, I suspect it is simply black and gray to everyone else."

- Michelle Moran, author


14. “I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go into the library and read a good book.”

- Groucho Marx, comedian and actor


15. "And books, they offer one hope - that a whole universe might open up from between the covers, and falling into that universe, one is saved."

- Anne Rice, author


16. "I believe one writes because one has to create a world in which one can live."

- Anais Nin, essayist


17. "Reading one book is like eating one potato chip."

- Diane Duane, author


18. "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."

- C.S. Lewis, author


19. "Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood."

- John Green, author


20. "If a book is well written, I always find it too short."

- Jane Austen, author


21. "Some like to believe it's the book that chooses the person."

- Carlos Ruiz Zafón, author


22. “Keep reading. It’s one of the most marvelous adventures that anyone can have.”

- Lloyd Alexander, author


23. “If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.”

- Roald Dahl, author


24. "Take a good book to bed with you- books do not snore."

- Thea Dorn, author


25. "To read is a voyage through time."

- Carl Sagan, astronomer and astrophysicist


26. "Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks."

- Dr. Seuss, author


27. "The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones."

- Joseph Joubert, moralist and essayist


28. "Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them."

- Lemony Snicket, author


29. "Happiness. That is what books smell like. Happiness."

- Sarah MacLean, author


30. "Wear the old coat and buy the new book."

- Austin Phelps, Congregational minister and educator


31. "Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else's shoes for a while."

- Malorie Blackman, author


32. "Lets be reasonable and add an eighth day to week that is devoted exclusively to reading."

- Lena Dunham, actress and author


33. "If the Beast gave me a library like he gave to Belle, I'd marry him too."

- Aya Ling, author


34. "So many books, so little time."

- Frank Zappa, singer-songwriter


35. “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.”

- Haruki Murakami, author


36. “Be careful about reading health books. Some fine day you'll die of a misprint.”

- Markus Herz, physician


37. “Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.”

- Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher


38. “There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.”

- Bertrand Russell, polymath and philosopher


39. “Think before you speak. Read before you think.”

- Fran Lebowitz, author


40. “Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.”

- Jane Smiley, author


41. “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, philosopher


42. “If you go home with somebody, and they don't have books, don't fuck 'em!”

- John Waters, filmmaker and actor


43. “I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.”

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist and philisopher


44. “After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.”

- Philip Pullman, author


45. “I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it.”

- David Foster Wallace, author


46. “A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.”

- David Mitchell, comedian and actor


47. “If you have enough book space, I don't want to talk to you.”

- Terry Pratchett, author


48. “Books are no more threatened by Kindle than stairs by elevators.”

- Stephen Fry, actor and author


49. “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.”

- Walt Disney, animator and film producer

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