The Quotes canon
Sourced and curated.
Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Philosophical literature3 quotes
The reading of good books is like a conversation with the best men of past centuries-in fact like a prepared conversation, in which they reveal only the best of their thoughts. — Rene Descartes · 1637The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency-the belief that the here and now is all there is. — Allan Bloom · 1987If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need. — Cicero · 44 BCAutobiography and memoir2 quotes
From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. — Benjamin Franklin · 1790My alma mater was books. — Malcolm X · 1965Political literature2 quotes
Books are not absolutely dead things, but do contain a potency of life in them to be as active as that soul was whose progeny they are. — John Milton · 1644The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency-the belief that the here and now is all there is. — Allan Bloom · 1987Biography1 quote
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good. — Samuel Johnson · 1763Children's literature1 quote
So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall. — Roald Dahl · 1964Comedy1 quote
What is this obsession people have with books? They put them in their houses-like they’re trophies. What do you need it for after you read it? — Jerry Seinfeld · 1991Comedy (TV)1 quote
What is this obsession people have with books? They put them in their houses-like they’re trophies. What do you need it for after you read it? — Jerry Seinfeld · 1991Drama1 quote
A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. — Tyrion Lannister · 2011Drama (TV)1 quote
A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. — Tyrion Lannister · 2011Fantasy1 quote
A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. — Tyrion Lannister · 2011Fantasy (TV)1 quote
A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone. — Tyrion Lannister · 2011Modernist literature1 quote
Every reader, as he reads, is actually the reader of himself. The writer's work is only a kind of optical instrument he provides the reader so he can discern what he might never have seen in himself without this book. The reader's recognition in himself of what the book says is the proof of the book's truth. — Marcel Proust · 1922Religious literature1 quote
Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. — Ecclesiastes 12:12 · 931 BCSitcom1 quote
What is this obsession people have with books? They put them in their houses-like they’re trophies. What do you need it for after you read it? — Jerry Seinfeld · 1991