One
of my favorite pastimes is to read and to read books about books. Connected to that is reading quotes about
books, writers, publishing, and reading.
I came across Book Love: A Celebration of Writers, Readers, and The
Printed & Bound Book, edited by James Charlton and Bill Henderson, and
it dishes out over 600 quotes on all things books.
Henderson
notes in his prelude: “Books are our
history and our future. If they survive,
we will too. Books, readers, writers –
on this trinity we keep the faith.” He
also noted: “Most books – about 80% of
them – lose money. A few best-sellers
might make up for these losses but book publishing is not where one turns for a
gigantic payday – the kind demanded by our ‘greed is good’ hustlers.”
Below
are 25 quotes that touched me. Perhaps
they will stimulate something within you.
But first, I leave you with one more observation by Henderson, who in
talking about the late 1970’s said: “Back
in those days, a good writer was held in respect. He or she was not denigrated as a content
provider. The reader too was respected,
was not a mere consumer (hideous word).
And books were designated solely by title, not by ISBN and publishing
did not call them ‘units’ but books.
Imagine!”
“A
book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without
breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your
face. It is one of the few havens
remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.”
--Edward
P. Morgan
“The
world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts,
monuments fall, nations perish, civilizations grow old and die out, and after
an era of darkness new races build others.
But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again
and again and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were
written, still telling men’s hearts, of the hearts of men centuries dead.”
--Clarence
Day
“The
multitude of books is making us ignorant.”
--Voltaire
“You
can never be too thin, too rich, or have too many books.”
--Carter
Burden
“Good
books do not waste our time as most people do; books are friends which enrich
us as much as we desire.”
--Cardinal
Augustin Valier
“A
premium is placed on one’s ability to communicate in short bursts. Celebrities rise to prominence and then
disappear very quickly. The disposable
syndrome has moved from paper plates, diapers, and clothes to information.”
--Kenneth
Dowlin, The Electronic Library
“Think
what a book is. It is a portion of the
eternal mind caught in its process through the world, stamped in an instant,
and preserved for eternity.”
--Lord
Houghton
“Of
all the inanimate objects, of all of a man’s creations, books are the nearest
to us, for they contain our very thought, our ambitions, our indignations, our
illusions, our fidelity to truth, and our persistent leaning towards
error. But most of all they resemble us
in their precarious hold on life."
--Joseph
Conrad
“I
thank God I am a bookseller, trafficking in the dreams and beauties to
curiosities of humanity rather some mere huckster of merchandise.”
--Christopher
Morley
“To
put good books in the hands of customers – matchmaking – that’s the
bookseller’s role. If we do it well,
we’ll stay relevant. If we don’t do it
well, we won’t."
--Sarah
McNally, McNally Jackson Books
“There
are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts.”
--Charles
Dickens
“It
is no accident that books are sacred to civilization. They open the past to us. A book is magical; it transcends time and
space.”
--Daniel
Boorstin
“Tell
me what you read and I’ll tell you who you are” is true enough, but I’d know
you better if you told me what you reread.”
--Francois
Mauriac
“The
more that you read,
The more
things you will know.
The
more that you learn,
The
more places you’ll go.”
--Dr.
Seuss
“The
oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.”
--Samuel
Butler
“I
divide all readers into two classes; those who read to remember and those who
read to forget.”
--William
Lyon Phelps
“When
you reread a classic you do not see more in the book than you did before; you
see more in you than was there before.”
--Clifton
Fadiman
“In
a very real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than
people who cannot or will not read. 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.
Hayakwa
“People
can lose their lives in libraries. They
ought to be warned.”
--Saul
Bellow
“The
uniqueness of the library is the joy of discovery. You find material that you were never looking
for.”
--Annette
MacNair
“Writing
is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.”
--Jules
Renard
“If
writers were good businessmen, they’d have too much sense to be writers.”
--Irvin
S. Cobb
“I
am convinced that all writers are optimists whether they concede the point or
not. How otherwise could any human being
sit down to a pile of blank sheets and decide to write, say two hundred
thousand words on a given theme?”
--Thomas
Costain
“The
writer has taken unto himself the former function of the priest or
prophet. He presumes to order and
legislate the people’s life. There is no person more arrogant than the writer.”
--Cornelius
Register
“Literary
success of any enduring kind is made by refusing to do what publishers want, by
refusing to write what the public wants, by refusing to accept any popular
standard, by refusing to write anything to order."
--Lafcadio
Hearn
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