40 Book Quotes About the Importance of Reading

Book Quotes and reading quotes. This is a list of 40 book quotes that sum up all the mushy gushy feelings within me about books and reading — and hopefully they resonate with you too!

Between work, family, chores, and more, it’s all too easy to let life get in the way of the pleasure of spending time with books. Whether you’ve let your cherished hobby lag or you’re a devoted reader and listener, these quotes will remind you of what you love about settling down with the perfect story.

Book Quotes

1. “Books were safer than other people anyway.” – Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

2. “A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.” – David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

3. “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” Walt Disney ( American entrepreneur, animator, writer, voice actor and film producer.)

4. “My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.” Malcolm X (African American Muslim minister and human rights activist)

5. “Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” ―Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

6. “Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly—they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” – Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

7. “When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” ―Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

8. “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” C.S. Lewis (British writer and lay theologian)

9. “Like most uneducated Englishwomen, I like reading—I like reading books in the bulk.” – Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

10. “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” Walt Disney ( American entrepreneur, animator, writer, voice actor and film producer.)

11. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Dr. Seuss (American children’s author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, and filmmaker)

12. “Books were safer than other people anyway.” ―Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

13. “In principle and reality, libraries are life-enhancing palaces of wonder.” ―Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

14. “A classic is a successful book that has survived the reaction of the next period or generation. Then it’s safe, like a style in architecture or furniture. It’s acquired a picturesque dignity to take the place of its fashion.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Beautiful and Damned

15. “That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” – Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

16. “I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.” Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish novelist, poet and travel writer, most noted for writing Treasure Island, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde)

17. “You see, unlike in the movies, there is no THE END sign flashing at the end of books. When I’ve read a book, I don’t feel like I’ve finished anything. So I start a new one.” ―Elif Shafak, The Bastard of Istanbul

18. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” Harper Lee (American novelist is best known for her 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird)

19. “The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

20. “I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” Groucho Marx (American comedian, actor, writer, stage, film, radio, and television star)

21. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut!

22. “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ―Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

23. “Classic’ – a book which people praise and don’t read.” Mark Twain (American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer.)

24. “Like most uneducated Englishwomen, I like reading—I like reading books in the bulk.” – Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

25. “I love the solitude of reading. I love the deep dive into someone else’s story, the delicious ache of a last page.” ―Naomi Shihab Nye

26. “No. I can survive well enough on my own — if given the proper reading material.” ―Sarah J. Maas, Throne of Glass

27. “Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden

28. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King, On Writing

29. “Reality doesn’t always give us the life that we desire, but we can always find what we desire between the pages of books.” ―Adelise M. Cullens

30. “Give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and you give me a very dangerous enemy indeed.” – Anne Rice, The Witching Hour

31. “He liked the mere act of reading, the magic of turning scratches on a page into words inside his head.” – John Green, An Abundance of Katherines

32. “One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.” – Malala Yousafzai, I Am Malala

33. “I believe there is power in words, power in asserting our existence, our experience, our lives, through words.” ―Jesmyn Ward, The Fire this Time

34. “Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafon, The Shadow of the Wind

35. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” Stephen King (American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels)

36. “There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.” – Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

37. “The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.” ―Mary McLeod Bethune

38. “There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.” – Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

39. “When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.” ―Maya Angelou

40. “There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away.” – Emily Dickinson