50 Of The Best Quotes About Reading
by TeachThought Staff
Literacy—the ability to read and write—is the foundation of formal, academic learning.
But beyond reading and writing skills, literacy is a gateway to critical thinking, effective communication, and holistic learning experiences. Literacy is crucial to any learning environment, from promoting comprehension to nurturing empathy and cultural understanding both inside the classroom and beyond.
Below are dozens of quotes–hopefully inspirational quotes–about reading. You can also read best quotes about knowledge, quotes about critical thinking, quotes about life, quotes about teaching, and quotes about learning.
50 Quotes About Reading
“Reading is the beginning of wisdom.” –Albert Einstein
“No man ever achieved tremendous success without learning — or, it should be added, without being forced to read his way out of a paper bag.” –Norman Borlaug
“So much is to be learned in a day, that reading will never again make an excellent man so learned as he was yesterday.” ~Olinga Rea
“Among problems that can arise from the lack of reading, one of the most significant is the epidemic of illiteracy. This fact, taken with the other problems mentioned in this topic, has significance for the reduction of private and public spending for schools.”
Literacy is the commonwealth, distinguished by strict compliance with general and reasonable societal standards.” –Anne Frank
“Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.” – Mary Schmich
“The world belongs to those who read.” – Rick Holland
“We read to know we are not alone.” – C.S. Lewis
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies . . . The man who never reads lives only one.” – George R.R. Martin
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Joseph Addison
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” – Harper Lee
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” – Jorge Luis Borges
“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.” – Mason Cooley
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” – Cicero
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” – Frederick Douglass
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King
“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
“Reading is a conversation. All books talk. But a good book listens as well.” – Mark Haddon
“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest men of past centuries.” – René Descartes
“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” – Walt Disney
“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” – W. Somerset Maugham
“The only important thing in a book is the meaning that it has for you.” – W. Somerset Maugham
“Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.” – Barbara W. Tuchman
“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.” – Edmund Burke
“It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it.” – Oscar Wilde
“No two persons ever read the same book.” – Edmund Wilson
“A book is a dream that you hold in your hands.” – Neil Gaiman
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” – C.S. Lewis
“The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading.” – David Bailey
“I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books.” – Gary Paulsen
“My alma mater was books, a good library… I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.” – Malcolm X
“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” – Mortimer J. Adler
“Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities.” – Ben Okri
“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
“Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.” – Jane Smiley
“Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.” – Jeanette Winterson
“Keep reading. It’s one of the most marvelous adventures that anyone can have.” – Lloyd Alexander
“The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night.” – Isabel Allende
“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” – Desiderius Erasmus
“Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.” – Henry Ward Beecher
“There is no friend as loyal as a book.” – Ernest Hemingway
“Read. Read anything. Read the things they say are good for you, and the things they claim are junk. You’ll find what you need to find. Just read.” – Neil Gaiman
“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” – Voltaire
“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.” – Joseph Addison
50 Inspirational Quotes About Reading