Quotes: Books

The bold-face print is an interpretation of the quote that follows.

Books
Books 96 JFK recommended all who worked for him to read Barbara Tuchman's book on WWI to warn that his administration would not "bungle" into war. "Early in his administration, President Kennedy asked his cabinet officials and members of the National Security Council to read Barbara Tuchman’s book The Guns of August …said it graphically portrayed how Europe’s leaders had bungled into the debacle of WWI…emphasized: 'I don’t ever want to be in that position…we are not going to bungle into war.' ” McNamara’s In Retrospect

Books 761 People read many books, but learn nothing about how to guide their behavior in the future. "...all the sad experience, which it took mankind so many ages to accumulate, and from which they never drew a moral for their future guidance…." Hawthorne: “The New Adam and Eve”

Books 809 A more profitable use for books? "You observe this convenient bridge; we obtained a sufficient foundation for it by throwing into the Slough [of Despond] some editions of books of morality, volumes of French philosophy and German rationalism, tracts, sermons, and essays of modern clergymen, extracts from Plato, Confucius and various Hindu sages, together with a few ingenious commentaries upon texts of scripture—all of which by some scientific process, have been converted into a mass like granite." Hawthorne: “The Celestial Rail-Road”

Books 898 Burning books. "See!—See!—what heaps of books and pamphlets…now we shall have a glorious blaze…now we shall get rid of dead man’s thoughts, which has hitherto pressed so heavily on the living intellect…thick, heavy folios, containing the labors of lexicographers, commentators, and encyclopedists, were flung in, and, falling among the embers with a leaden thump, smoldered away to ashes, like rotten wood." Hawthorne: “Earth’s Holocaust”

Books 901 Nature, the heart and life are better than any book. …is not nature better than a book? ---is not the human heart deeper than any system of philosophy?—is not life replete with more instruction than past observers have found it possible to write down in maxims? Hawthorne: “Earth’s Holocaust”

Books 955 A library of books planned but not achieved. " …a splendid library, the volumes of which were inestimable, because they consisted not of actual performances, but of the works which the authors only planned, without ever finding the happy season to achieve them…the untold tales of Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims, the unwritten cantos of The Fairy Queen; the conclusion of Coleridge’s Christabel; and the whole of Dryden’s projected epic on the subject of King Arthur." Hawthorne: “A Select Party”

Books 245 "When a book and a head collide and there is a hollow sound, is it always in the book?" Lichtenberg. 1764-99. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Books 285 "There are more books upon books than upon any other subject." Montaigne. 1580-8. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Books 285 "Never disregard a book because the author of it is a foolish fellow." Lord Melbourne. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Books 286 "Books do not teach the use of books." Anon. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Books 286 "We find little in a book but what we put there; but in great books, the mind finds room to put many things." Joubert. 1842. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Books 187 "The better the book, the more room for the reader." Holbrook Jackson. 1934. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Books 289 "No furniture so charming as books." Sydney smith. 1855. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Books 34 "The multitude of books is making us ignorant." Voltaire. Portable Curmudgeon.

Books 167 "Books have their own destiny." Terentius Maurus. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Books 248 "There is no robber worse than a bad book." Italian. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Books 358 "Life without literature (or books) is death." Latin. Dictionary of Foreign Terms

Books 12 The antiquary. Printed books he condemns, as a novelty of this latter age; but a manuscript he pores on everlastingly, especially if the cover be all moth-eaten... John Earle, “An Antiquary,” 1628. Gross, ed. Essays.

Books 515 "Perhaps it is only in childhood that books have any deep influence on our lives." Graham Greene, “The Lost Childhood.” 1947. Gross, ed. Essays.

Books 515 We read books in order to confirm what we already know. In later life we admire, we are entertained, we may modify some views we already hold, but we are more likely to find in books merely a confirmation of what is in our minds already…. Graham Greene, “The Lost Childhood.” 1947. Gross, ed. Essays.

Books 299 Seneca: "Many people…use books not as tools for study but as decorations for the dining room." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Books 15 One becomes attached to the specific book that one has read. "I too soon discovered that one doesn't simply read Crime and Punishment or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn…one reads a certain edition, a specific copy, recognizable by the roughness or smoothness of its paper, by its scent, by a slight tear on page 72 and a coffee ring on the right-hand corner of the back cover." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Books 53 Emerson: "All these books…are the majestic expressions of the universal conscience…." Manguel, A History of Reading. [I would substitute the word "consciousness" for "conscience." RayS. ]

Books 56 "Held in my hand, the book twice remembers." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Books 125 The shape and size of the book are part of the memory of reading the book. "…books also declare themselves through their size… I judge a book by its cover; I judge a book by its shape." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Books 237 My books are an inventory of my life. "I enjoy the sight of my crowded bookshelves…I delight in knowing that I’m surrounded by a sort of inventory of my life." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Books 245 The time and place and the external characteristics of my book are part of my memory of reading the book. "Annotations, stains, marks of one kind or another, a certain moment and place, characterize that volume as surely, as if it were a priceless manuscript." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Books and life 91 One cannot imprison life in a book. Kafka: "One tries to imprison life in a book, like a songbird in a cage, but it’s no good." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Books classification 199 Books are difficult to categorize.; they often fit many categories. "Filed under Fiction, Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels is a humorous novel of adventure; under Sociology, a satirical study of England in the eighteenth century; under Children’s Literature, an entertaining fable about dwarfs and giants and talking horses; under Fantasy, a precursor of science fiction; under Travel, an imaginary voyage; under classics, a part of the Western literary canon." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Books classification 199 One's reading expands the categories under which the book is listed. "Categories are exclusive; reading is not…." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Books future of 23 One day in the future, we might have to carry our books in our minds. "…in that cautionary future described by Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451, in which books are carried not on paper but in the mind." Manguel, A History of Reading.

Books, classic 286 Classic definition of a classic. "A classic is something that everyone wants to have read and nobody wants to read." Mark Twain. 1900. Gross, ed. Oxford Book of Aphorisms.

Bookworm 901 A bookworm is a person whose only ideas have come from books. "…a bookworm—one of those men who are born to gnaw dead thoughts…clothes…are covered with the dust of libraries…has no inward fountain of ideas…." Hawthorne: “Earth’s Holocaust”