100 Quotes About Reading to Inspire Every Book Lover
I was thinking recently of the great quotes that changed my life. Every once in a while I come across a quote that latches onto my psyche and alters the course of my life moving forward. I can genuinely say I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it weren’t for a few great pieces of literature and the lasting impact their message brought.
We’ve recently done a couple of other articles on quotes, such as 25 Famous Quotes from our library, but I wanted to do a larger article where I share some of the greatest quotes on reading in particular, which I’ve collected over 30 years of reading.
So, whether you’re in need of some inspiration or you’re simply looking for a cool Instagram caption for your next story, here are 100 of my favourite quotes about reading.
Our Favourite Quotes About Reading
Here are 100 quotes about reading we love. Some will make you smile, some will make you think, and maybe one will make you bookmark your next book before finishing this article.
“The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t.” — Mark Twain
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” — Stephen King
“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
“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination and the journey.” — Anna Quindlen
“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.” — Maya Angelou
“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” — J.K. Rowling
“There is no substitute for books in the life of a child.” — May Ellen Chase
“Books open your mind, broaden your mind, and strengthen you as nothing else can.” — William Feather
“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore. It should be offered as a gift.” — Kate DiCamillo
“There is a wonder in reading Braille that the sighted will never know.” — Jim Fiebig
“Read what you love until you love to read.” — Naval Ravikant
“Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time.” — E.P. Whipple
“A book is a gift you can open again and again.” — Garrison Keillor
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” — Cicero
“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.” — Mason Cooley
“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.” — Abraham Lincoln
“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” — Oscar Wilde
🪞 On the Joy of Reading|
“Some books leave us free and some books make us free.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.” — Diane Duane
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” — Jorge Luis Borges
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” — Frederick Douglass
“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” — Jim Rohn
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” — Harper Lee
“A reader is not just a consumer, but a co-creator of the story.” — Ursula K. Le Guin
“There is no frigate like a book to take us lands away.” — Emily Dickinson
“When I think of all the books still left for me to read, I am certain of further happiness.” — Jules Renard
“Reading gives us empathy; it lets us live a thousand other lives.” — Neil Gaiman
📚 On Books and Imagination
“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” — Carlos Ruiz Zafón
“A good book is an event in my life.” — Stendhal
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends.” — Charles W. Eliot
“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted.” — William Styron
“The person who deserves the most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn’t know how to read.” — Benjamin Franklin
“Reading is dreaming with open eyes.” — Anissa Trisdianty
”That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” – Jhumpa Lahiri
“A good book has no ending.” — R.D. Cumming
“Books are a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind.” — Toni Morrison
“There is no friend as loyal as a book.” — Ernest Hemingway
☕ On Comfort and Solitude
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns it on, I go into the other room and read a book.” — Groucho Marx
“A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.” — Neil Gaiman
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” – James Baldwin
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” — Haruki Murakami
“Books were my pass to personal freedom.” — Oprah Winfrey
“People say life is the thing, but I prefer reading.” — Logan Pearsall Smith
“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C.S. Lewis
“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” — John Locke
“A house without books is like a room without windows.” — Horace Mann
“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” — Desiderius Erasmus
🕯 On Learning and Growth
“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” ― Henry David Thoreau
“He that loves reading has everything within his reach.” — William Godwin
“Reading is the gateway skill that makes all other learning possible.” — Barack Obama
“Once you learn to read, you can never be content being ignorant.” — Unknown
“Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”― Voltaire
“The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.” ―Mary McLeod Bethune
“If you read only to pass time, you miss the magic that passes through you.” — Anonymous
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” — Victor Hugo
“Reading means borrowing, imagining, creating anew.” — Marcel Proust
“To read is to voyage through time.” — Carl Sagan
❤️ On Love for Books
“I cannot live without books.” — Thomas Jefferson
“Books fall open, you fall in.” — David T.W. McCord
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” — Ray Bradbury
“Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.”— Harold Bloom
“Reading is my favourite way of breathing.” — Unknown
“I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.” — J.K. Rowling
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” — Ray Bradbury
“Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this.” — Dave Eggers
“Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of friendship.” — Italo Calvino
“Reading is a conversation. All books talk. But a good book listens as well.”— Mark Haddon
💭 On Reflection and Perspective
“Books may well be the only true magic.” — Alice Hoffman
“Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry.” — Umberto Eco
“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.” — René Descartes
“Reading gives you someplace to go when you have to stay where you are.” — Mason Cooley
“What you read becomes who you are.” — Oscar Wilde
“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
“Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.”― Stéphane Mallarmé
“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
“There are many little ways to enlarge your world. Love of books is the best of all.” — Jacqueline Kennedy
“I guess there are never enough books.” — John Steinbeck
🌙 On Magic and Escape
“A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.” ― C.S. Lewis
“You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy books and that’s kind of the same thing.” — Anonymous
“The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” ―Malcolm X
“The world belongs to those who read.” — Rick Holland
”Have books ‘happened’ to you? Unless your answer to that question is ‘yes,’ I’m unsure how to talk to you.” – Haruki Murakami
“A book is a weapon against intolerance.” — Lyndon B. Johnson
”Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds.” – Roxane Gay
“I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.” — Robert Louis Stevenson
“Books are proof humans can work magic.” — Carl Sagan
“A book is a dream from which you hold the power to wake whenever you wish.” — Unknown
🌟 On Readers Themselves
“Readers are leaders.” — Harry S. Truman
“There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book.” – Frank Serafini
“It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.” – S.I. Hayakawa
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” — Mark Twain
“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.”― W. Somerset Maugham
“The best readers are re-readers.” — Vladimir Nabokov
”Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” – Jean Rhys
“She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.” — Annie Dillard
“Reading rewires your brain for empathy.” — Unknown
“The more you read, the less you feel alone.” — Alex, His & Hers Book Club
There you have it, 100 of my favourite quotes about reading. Some are profound, some are delightfully simple, all remind us that reading isn’t just a hobby - it’s an identity, a compass, and a quiet rebellion against ignorance.
Whether you’re scribbling these into your journal, sharing them on social media, or adding them to your next book club meeting agenda (we’ve got great book club discussion questions for that), remember: every quote started as a reader’s heartbeat.
So go forth, read widely, underline recklessly, and may your next favourite line be waiting on the very next page.
Whether you’re in need of some inspiration or you’re simply looking for a cool Instagram caption for your next story, here are 100 of my favourite quotes about reading.