Home / Topics / Reading Quotes

Reading Quotes

Browse 10209 quotes about Reading.

Reading Quotes

“Everybody reads for me. I was never weird about that. I never minded coming in and reading. They should know if I'm the right person, and I should know if I want to do a movie.”

Ifs Knows Want Should Persons Reading Right Person

Author:Jodie Foster

“I'm not a masochistic reader. If something is just too dense or not enjoyable, even though I'm told it should be good for me, I'll put it down. That said, most of what I read would be considered high-end or good for you, I suppose. But, I also think that reading should be enjoyable.”

Ifs Thinking Should Said Ends Would Be Reading Reader Be Good Enjoyable Dense Masochistic

Author:Josh Radnor

“We should get into the habit of reading inspirational books, looking at inspirational pictures, hearing inspirational music, associating with inspirational friends.”

Should Book Reading Music Habit Hearing Inspirational Music Reading Inspirational Inspirational Book

Author:Alfred Armand Montapert

“I like to read first thing in the morning. I'm addicted to the Kindle. I read a lot of business books, because I feel like I should figure out how to be a real businessman before someone figures out that I'm not one. I really enjoy reading classics as well, which I try to work in once every two months.”

Feels Should Trying Firsts Wells Two Book Real Reading Enjoy Morning Figures Months Businessman Kindles Two Months

Author:Matt Mullenweg

“We all know we should eat right and we should exercise, but reading is treated as if it's this wonderful adjunct.”

Ifs Knows Should Reading Wonderful Exercise Treated

Author:Walter Dean Myers

“Reading, reflection and time have convinced me that the interests of society require the observation of those moral precepts only in which all religions agree (for all forbid us to steal, murder, plunder, or bear false witness), and that we should not intermeddle with the particular dogmas in which all religions differ, and which are totally unconnected with morality.”

Should Reading Interest Moral Particular Bears Morality Reflection Murder Agree Convinced Stealing Observation Witness Dogma Plunder False Witness

Book:Jefferson: Political Writings

Source: Jefferson: Political Writings

“I have always believed in the magic of childhood and think that if you get your life right that magic should never end. I feel that if adults cannot enjoy a children’s book properly there is something wrong with either the book or the adult reading it. This of course, is just a smart way of saying I don't want to grow up.”

Ifs Thinking Way Want Feels Should Children Book Ends Courses Reading Grows Enjoy Growing Up Magic Childhood Smart Adults Always Believe Children's Books Magic Of Childhood

Author:Colin Thompson

“Anyone who loved Tuesdays with Morrie should delight in reading The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Mitch Albom has populated his larger-than-life tale with memorable characters and filled it with the abundant warmth and wisdom that we've come to expect from this gifted storyteller.”

People Should Character Reading Heaven Five Filled Delight Tales Memorable Warmth Gifted Storyteller Tuesday Larger Than Life Morrie Tuesdays With Morrie Memorable Characters

Author:John Burnham Schwartz

“Why should literature be easy? Sometimes you can do what you want to do in a simple, direct way that is absolutely right. Sometimes you can't. Reading is not a passive act. Books are not TV. Art of all kinds is an interactive challenge. The person who makes the work and the person who comes to the work both have a job to do. I am never wilfully obscure, but I do ask for some effort.”

Way Want Should Kind Persons Art Book Sometimes Jobs Reading Asks Literature Easy Can Do Challenges Simple Effort Tvs Direct What You Want All Kinds Passive Obscure Interactive

Author:Jeanette Winterson

“When in reading we meet with any maxim that may be of use, we should take it for our own, and make an immediate application of it, as we would of the advice of a friend whom we have purposely consulted.”

Should May Book Use Reading Advice Application Maxims Books And Reading

Author:Charles Caleb Colton

“I would say that the single most important conclusion I reached, after traveling through Japan, as well as countless hours reading, studying, and analyzing this fascinating culture, is that you should always tighten the cap on the shampoo bottle before you put it in your suitcase.”

Should Wells Important Culture Reading Hours Cities Study Conclusion Fascinating Japan Bottles Caps Analyzing Suitcases Shampoo

Book:Dave Barry Does Japan

Source: Dave Barry Does Japan

“The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style, Give truth a lustre, and make wisdom smile.”

Giving Should Mind Wells Turns Reading Sports Style Wit Classic

Book:The complete poetical works of William Cowper, with life and critical notice of his writings

Source: The complete poetical works of William Cowper, with life and critical notice of his writings

“What blockheads are those wise persons, who think it necessary that a child should comprehend everything it reads.”

Thinking Should Children Persons Reading Understanding Wise Wise Person Blockheads

Book:The Doctor, &c

Source: The Doctor, &c

“History is not the story of heroes entirely. It is often the story of cruelty and injustice and shortsightedness. There are monsters, there is evil, there is betrayal. That's why people should read Shakespeare and Dickens as well as history ~~ they will find the best, the worst, the height of noble attainment and the depths of depravity.”

People Should Wells Book Stories Evil Reading Worst Hero Depth Injustice Betrayal Noble Monsters Cruelty Height Attainment Depravity Dickens Books And Reading

Author:David McCullough

“You should never try and teach a pig to read for two reasons. First, it's impossible; and secondly, it annoys the hell out of the pig!.”

Should Trying Firsts Two Book Reason Reading Teach Hell Impossible Annoying Pigs Impossibility Books And Reading

Author:Will Rogers

“Drs. Margolis and Fisher have done a great service to education, computer science, and the culture at large. Unlocking the Clubhouse should be required reading for anyone and everyone who is concerned about the decreasing rate of women studying computer science.”

Should Done Culture Reading Study Computer Concerned Rate Drs Computer Science Great Service Unlocking

Author:Anita Borg

“I've found myself at one in the morning just sitting at my desk spending an hour returning emails from the day until like two in the morning. It's ridiculous, I should be sleeping, or dreaming, or reading a novel.”

Should Two Dream Reading Found Hours Sleep Morning Novel Sitting Spending Ridiculous Desks Email

Author:Brit Marling

“Your readers should be so compelled to read your copy that they cannot stop reading until they read all of it as if sliding down a slippery slide.”

Ifs Should Reading Reader Copies Compelled Slides Slippery

Book:The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America's Top Copywriters

Source: The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America's Top Copywriters

“I often tell my clients they should do at least 30 percent of all their reading outside their own field. This will give them perspective and knowledge that will make them more interesting.”

Giving Should Reading Interesting Fields Perspective Percent Clients

Book:You Are the Message: Getting What You Want by Being Who You Are

Source: You Are the Message: Getting What You Want by Being Who You Are

“There is no reason why the profoundest thoughts should not make easy and exciting reading. A profound thought is an exciting thing as exciting as a detective's deductions or hunches. The simpler the words in which a thought is expressed the more stimulating its effect.”

Should Reason Reading Easy Effects Exciting Profound Reason Why No Reason Detectives Deductions Hunches Exciting Things Profound Thoughts

Author:Eric Hoffer

“I should have written books instead of reading them.”

Should Book Reading Written Should Have

Book:Reunion

Source: Reunion

“Does one get faith by mere studying of books? Too much reading creates confusion. The Master used to say that one should learn from the scriptures that God alone is real and the world illusory.”

World Should Doe Book Real Used Reading Study Too Much Masters Mere Scripture Confusion Illusory

Author:Sarada Devi

“You have to seduce the reader, manipulate their mind and heart, listen to the music of language. I sometimes think of prose as music, in terms of its rhythms and dynamics, the way you compress and expand the attention of a reader over a sentence, the way the tempo pushes you towards an image or sensation. We want an intense experience, so that we can forget ourselves when we enter the world of the book. When you are reading, the physical object of the book should disappear from your hands.”

“As the true object of education is not to render the pupil the mere copy of his preceptor, it is rather to be rejoiced in, than lamented, that various reading should lead him into new trains of thinking.”

Thinking Should Reading Objects Train Mere Various Copies Pupils

Book:The Enquirer

Source: The Enquirer

“Popular culture as a whole is popular, but in today's fragmented market it's a jostle of competing unpopular popular cultures. As the critic Stanley Crouch likes to say, if you make a movie and 10 million people go see it, you'll gross $100 million - and 96 per cent of the population won't have to be involved. That alone should caution anyone about reading too much into individual examples of popular culture.”

“J.L. Moreno was a pioneer of twentieth-century theater and psychotherapy. A remarkable work, Impromptu Man should be required reading for therapists and dramatists alike.”

Men Should Reading Century Theater Remarkable Twentieth Century Pioneers Therapists Psychotherapy

Author:Jeffrey K. Zeig

“I easily sink into mere absorption of what other minds have done, and should like a whole life for that alone.”

Should Mind Done Whole Reading Mere Whole Life Absorption

Book:George Eliot's Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals

Source: George Eliot's Life as Related in Her Letters and Journals

“There is no learned man but will confess be hath much profited by reading controversies,--his senses awakened, his judgment sharpened, and the truth which he holds firmly established. If then it be profitable for him to read, why should it not at least be tolerable and free for his adversary to write? In logic they teach that contraries laid together, more evidently appear; it follows then, that all controversy being permitted, falsehood will appear more false, and truth the more true; which must needs conduce much to the general confirmation of an implicit truth.”

Ifs Men Needs Should Writing Together Reading Teach Judgment Logic Contrary Senses Falsehood Controversy Profitable Adversaries Awakened Confirmation Implicit Tolerable If Then

Author:John Milton

“The poet should try to give his poem the quiet swiftness of flame, so that the reader will feel and not think while he is reading. But the thinking will come afterwards.”

Thinking Giving Feels Should Trying Poetry Reading Poet Reader Quiet Flames Swiftness

Author:Sara Teasdale

“The mind should be accustomed to make wise reflections, and draw curious conclusions as it goes along; the habitude of which made Pliny the Younger affirm that he never read book so bad but he drew some profit from it.”

Should Mind Made Book Reading Wise Draws Reflection Profit Conclusion Curious Accustomed

Book:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Source: The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

“[On Gertrude Stein's Making of Americans:] I doubt if all the people who should read it will read it for a great while yet, for it is in such a limited edition, and reading it is anyhow a sort of permanent occupation.”

People Ifs Should Reading Doubt Permanent Occupation Gertrude Limited Edition

Book:Katherine Anne Porter: Collected Stories & Other Writings

Source: Katherine Anne Porter: Collected Stories & Other Writings

“I think parents should know what their children are reading, and if they truly object, they should tell their kids why, rather than summarily removing a book from their possession.”

Ifs Thinking Knows Should Children Book Kids Reading Parent Objects Possession

Author:Ellen Hopkins

“The letter of application ... should be a masterpiece of fiction, papering over all the cracks. Get it properly typed on decent writing paper. Never let it run over the page, people get bored with reading.”

People Should Writing Running Reading Work Fiction Office Paper Pages Letters Bored Decent Cracks Application Masterpiece

Author:Jilly Cooper

“the compulsion to read and write - and it seems to me it should be, even must be, a compulsion - is a bit of mental wiring the species has selected, over time, in order, as the life span increases, to keep us interested in ourselves.”

Should Writing Seems Order Reading Bits Increase Species Compulsion Selected Life Span Wiring

Author:Lorrie Moore

“reading is a private act, private even from the person who wrote the book. Once the novel is out there, the author is beside the point. The reader and the book have their own relationship now, and should be left alone to work things out for themselves.”

Should Persons Book Reading Left Novel Reader Book Reading Left Alone

Book:This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

Source: This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage

“He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men.”

Ifs Men Should Long Book Reading Known Should Have Contemplation Long Life Should Have Known

Author:Isaac Asimov

“Reading a book should be a conversation between you and the author. Presumably he knows more about the subject than you do; if not, you probably should not be bothering with his book. But understanding is a two-way operation; the learner has to question himself and question the teacher, once he understands what the teacher is saying. Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author. It is the highest respect you can pay him.”

Ifs Knows Way Should Two Book Reading Understanding Differences Pay Teacher Subjects Expression Conversation Highest Bother Operations Agreement Two Ways Learners

Author:Mortimer Adler

“That I can read and be happy while I am reading, is a great blessing. Could I have remembered, as some men do, what I read, I should have been able to call myself an educated man. But that power I have never possessed. Something is always left--something dim and inaccurate--but still something sufficient to preserve the taste for more. I am inclined to think that it is so with most readers.”

Source: Anthony Trollope: The Chronicles of Barsetshire & The Palliser Novels (Unabridged): The Warden + The Barchester Towers + Doctor Thorne + Framley Parsonage + The Small House at Allington + The Last Chronicle of Barset + Can You Forgive Her? + The Prime Minister + Eustace Diamonds...

“I think that for a lot of actors - especially American actors - to get line readings and to be told and have your director literally act out the part for you is sort of discouraging in a way. It's a very Eastern European thing to do - a lot of directors that I worked with in Russia did that as well. And, I never took that as an insult, as many actors tend to do. To me, I think it's just offering a certain energy - offering their flavor - and, instead of trying to sort of decode and communicate it to you, they just show you their flavor of what it should be.”

Thinking Way Should Trying Wells Shows Certain Reading Actors Energy Lines Directors Communicate Russia Things To Do Insult Offering Flavor Eastern Discouraging

Author:Jon Bernthal

“I started reading Dickens when I was about 12, and I particularly liked all of the orphan books. I always liked books about young people who are left on their own with the world, and the four children's books I've written feature that very thing: children that are abandoned by their families or running away from their families or ignored by their families and having to grow up quicker than they should, like David Copperfield - having to be the hero of their own story.”

People World Should Children Book Stories Running Young Reading Left Grows Growing Up Four Written Hero Our Children Features Abandoned Running Away Ignored Orphan Children's Books Dickens

Author:John Boyne

“I'm enough of an anarchist aesthetically, when it comes to art - I want people to be reading my stuff voluntarily. They should be doing it because they want to.”

People Want Should Art Enough Reading Stuff Anarchist

Author:Nell Zink

“Obama is not just a powerful speaker, but a thinker engaged with the ideas of his country and his age--this argument by historian James Kloppenberg should therefore fascinate anyone interested in American politics or how ideas shape public life. Tracing the influences of Obama's family, educational, and work experiences on his ideas, Reading Obama locates a unique individual in the crosscurrents of American democracy and continuing fights over American ideals.”

“I know these are going to sound like school reading-list suggestions, but if you like dystopian fiction, you should check out some of the originals: Anthem, by Ayn Rand; 1984, by George Orwell; or Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.”

Ifs Knows World Should School Reading Sound Fiction Originals Brave Lists Checks New World Suggestions Dystopian Anthem Dystopian Fiction Brave New World Huxley

Author:Sara Shepard

“The beginner should not be discouraged if he finds he does not have the prerequisites for reading the prerequisites.”

Ifs Should Doe Reading Discouraged Beginners Prerequisites

Author:Paul Halmos

“A Crime So Monstrous is a remarkably brave and unflinching piece of reportage and storytelling. Ben Skinner bears witness, sharing stories so unsettling, so neglected, so chilling they will leave you shaking with anger. This should be required reading for policy makers around the world - and, for that matter, anyone concerned about the human condition.”

“I am so convinced of the advantages of looking at mankind instead of reading about them, . . . that I think there should be a law amongst us to set our young men abroad for a term among the few allies our wars have left us.”

Thinking Men Should War Law Young Reading Left Term Mankind Advantage Convinced Young Man Allies Travel And Tourism

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)

“This book should be read as one would read the book of a dead man.”

Men Should Book Reading Dead Man

Author:Victor Hugo

“... if this world were anything near what it should be there would be no more need of a Book Week than there would be a of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.”

Ifs World Needs Should Children Book Would Be Reading Week This World Cruelty Reading Books Prevention

Book:A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

Source: A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

“The one man who should never attempt an explanation of a poem is its author. If the poem can be improved by it's author's explanations it never should have been published, and if the poem cannot be improved by its author's explanations the explanations are scarcely worth reading.”

Ifs Men Should Has Beens Poetry Reading Should Have Explanation One Man Should Have Been Worth Reading

Author:Archibald MacLeish

“Common sense should tell us that reading is the ultimate weapon--destroying ignorance, poverty and despair before they can destroyus. A nation that doesn't read much doesn't know much. And a nation that doesn't know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box and the voting booth...The challenge, therefore, is to convince future generations of children that carrying a book is more rewarding than carrying guns.”

Source: The Read-aloud Handbook