50+ Soulful Quotes About the Profound Meaning of Books

“Of all the inanimate objects, of all men’s creations, books are the nearest to us for they contain our very thoughts, our ambitions, our indignations, our illusions, our fidelity to the truth, and our persistent leanings to error. But most of all they resemble us in their precious hold on life.”

“When you re-read a classic you do not see in the book more than you did before. You see more in you than there was before.”

“I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.”

“My life – my personality, my habits, even my speech – is a combination of the books I choose to read, the people I choose to listen to, and the thoughts I choose to tolerate in my mind”

“I wanted to crawl in between those black lines of print, the way you crawl through a fence, and go to sleep under that beautiful big green fig-tree.”

“The book smelled dusty and old but also carried a sweet tang, a hint of something inviting. She opened to the first page and started to read, pronouncing the words in a reverent whisper.”

“One glance at (a book) and you hear the voice of another person – perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millenia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you.”

“And she never could remember; and ever since that day what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician’s Book.”

“Every night, I have to read a book, so that my mind will stop thinking about things that I stress about.”

“Books fall open, you fall in”

“An active mind didn’t need distractions in its physical environment. It needed a collection of outstanding books and a good lamp. Maybe some cheese and crackers.”

“You can never, never have too many books”

“Books are like oxygen to a deep-sea diver,she had once said. “Take them away and you might as well begin counting the bubbles.””

“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness.”

“Yes, when I get big and have my own home, no plush chairs and lace curtains for me. And no rubber plants. I’ll have a desk like this in my parlor and white walls and a clean green blotter every Saturday night and a row of shining yellow pencils always sharpened for writing and a golden-brown bowl with a flower or some leaves or berries always in it and books . . . books . . . books. . . .”

“Books are to me as homemade tattoos are to an inmate. Can’t get enough of them.”

“I can promise you books and conversation and all my heart.”

“Books are the most tolerant of friends.”

“I should rather have you than a heap of gold, even if it were very comfortable to sleep on.”

“His library was a fine dark place bricked with books, so anything could happen there and always did. All you had to do was pull a book from the shelf and open it and suddenly the darkness was not so dark anymore.”

“Be as careful of the books you read, as of the company you keep; for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as the latter.”

“I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.”

“Reading makes you ready for the world. A man who doesn’t read is a man who is easily deceived. You must find that man and make him sign a contract, and you must do it before Satan does. Trust me, the profits are HUGE!”

“People talk about books being an escape, but here on the tube, this one feels more like a lifeline…The motion of the train makes her head rattle, but her eyes lock on the words the way a figure skater might choose a focal point as she spins, and just like that, she’s grounded again.”

“Sometimes I sensed that the books I read in rapid succession had set up some sort of murmur among themselves, transforming my head into an orchestra pit where different musical instruments sounded out, and I would realize that I could endure this life because of these musicales going on in my head.”

“Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time.”

“I think a good book is a good book forever.I don’t think they get less good because times change.”

“To read is to empower,To empower is to write,To write is to influence,To influence is to change,To change is to live’.”

“I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.”

“Get books, sit yourself down anywhere, and go to reading them yourself.”

“I just knew there were stories I wanted to tell.”

“How does it feel, anyway?”How does what feel?When you take one of those books?”At that moment, she chose to keep still. If he wants an answer, he’d have to come back, and he did. “Well?”he asked, but again, it was the boy who replied, before Liesel could even open her mouth.It feels good, doesn’t it? To steal something back.””

“A written word is the choicest of relics. It is something at once more intimate with us and more universal than any other work of art. It is the work of art nearest to life itself. It may be translated into every language, and not only be read but actually breathed from all human lips; — not be represented on canvas or in marble only, but be carved out of the breath of life itself.”

“The point is, it didn’t really matter what the book was about. It was what it meant that was important.”

“And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. I would not change it.”

“I don’t know where people got the idea that characters in books are supposed to be likable. Books are not in the business of creating merely likeable characters with whom you can have some simple identification with. Books are in the business of creating great stories that make you’re brain go ahhbdgbdmerhbergurhbudgerbudbaaarr.”

“Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head.”

“Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like.”

“Books aren’t written – they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”

“Life is too short to waste time on books that end badly”

“I have never been able to resist a book about books.”

“The book thief has struck for the first time – the beginning of an illustrious career.”

“I plan to learn enough to read you like a book.”

“When you are old and grey and full of sleep And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep”

“The taste for books was an early one. As a child he was sometimes found at midnight by a page still reading. They took his taper away, and he bred glow-worms to serve his purpose. They took the glow-worms away and he almost burnt the house down with a tinder.”

“For a moment I was distracted. Books always did that to me… I liked the creamy pages, the smell of ink, all the secrets locked inside.”

“For books continue each other, in spite of our habit of judging them separately.”

“It was like walking into a treasure trove of books, hoarded by pirate librarians.”

“My bookcase is all yours.’I walked to the door. ‘I’ve just decided that those are my favorite five words in the world.”

“I had found my religion: nothing seemed more important to me than a book. I saw the library as a temple.”