The best reading quotes say what it actually feels like to read: the escape, the company, the quiet, the stack of unread books by the bed. This page collects 22 of them, from Descartes to Stephen King. Each one is traced as far back as we could take it, and where the usual credit is wrong or the trail goes cold, we say so right beside the quote.
A Featured Quote About Reading
“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.”
— Jim Rohn
Best Reading Quotes
These are the lines readers return to most, each with its source.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,” said Jojen. “The man who never reads lives only one.”
— George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons (2011). The line belongs to a character, Jojen Reed, speaking to Bran Stark, which is why it appears in quotation marks inside the book.
“Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.”
— Mary Schmich, Chicago Tribune column, October 28, 1998. Schmich is also the columnist behind the “Wear Sunscreen” essay, which circulated online for years under Kurt Vonnegut’s name. This line, at least, has always been hers.
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
— Richard Steele, The Tatler, No. 147 (1710). It is often credited to Joseph Addison, Steele’s partner on The Spectator, but the essay ran in Steele’s Tatler and standard quotation references credit Steele. The original goes on to argue that reading only works like exercise when you enjoy it.
“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”
— René Descartes, Discourse on the Method (1637). The wording changes from translation to translation. What stays constant is Descartes’s next move: he calls it a carefully prepared conversation in which authors share only the best of their thoughts.
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
— Joseph Brodsky. Reported as said at his 1991 press conference at the Library of Congress, on becoming U.S. Poet Laureate. Brodsky had been exiled from the Soviet Union, which gives the line its weight.
“I cannot live without books.”
— Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams, June 10, 1815. He had just sold his library to Congress. The sentence actually continues, “but fewer will suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future object,” and he was already rebuilding his collection.
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.”
— Jorge Luis Borges, “Poem of the Gifts.” This is a loose English rendering that took on a life of its own. The poem is about Borges being named director of Argentina’s National Library just as he was going blind.
Short Reading Quotes
Short enough for a bookmark, a caption, or the front of a notebook.
“There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away.”
— Emily Dickinson, “There is no Frigate like a Book.”
“Some books leave us free and some books make us free.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, from his journals.
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”
— Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake.
“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”
— Mason Cooley, American aphorist and longtime professor at the College of Staten Island.
Quotes About the Love of Books
For people who collect them, stack them, and cannot walk past a library.
“Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised.”
— Helen Keller, The Story of My Life (1902–1903). Keller was deaf and blind from the age of nineteen months, and she wrote that no barrier of the senses stood between her and her “book friends.”
“I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”
— Anna Quindlen.
“The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.”
— Joseph Joubert, Pensées. Joubert published nothing in his lifetime; his notebooks were collected after his death in 1824.
Quotes About Being a Reader
On reading as part of who you are, not just something you do.
“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
— Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), in the voice of Scout Finch.
“We read to know we’re not alone.”
— William Nicholson, Shadowlands, his play about C. S. Lewis.
Famous Authors on Reading
Writers talking about their own habit, with the work each line comes from.
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
— Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000).
“They have loved reading.”
— Virginia Woolf, “How Should One Read a Book?” (1926 lecture). In Woolf’s imagined Day of Judgment, conquerors and statesmen arrive for their rewards, and the Almighty, seeing readers come with books under their arms, decides they need nothing: they have loved reading.
“Think before you speak. Read before you think.”
— Fran Lebowitz, “Tips for Teens,” Social Studies (1981). Her next line gives the reason: reading hands you something to think about that you didn’t make up yourself.
Funny Reading Quotes
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
— Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid.
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”
— Attributed to Groucho Marx. Variations of this joke were in print in the 1940s, and Groucho’s name was attached to it only later, so we list it as attributed rather than confirmed.
Reading Quotes for Kids and Classrooms
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
— Dr. Seuss, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut! (1978). This is the line most school librarians reach for, and it comes from a book written for children who are just starting to read on their own.
Looking for quotes about teachers, students, and school life? See our education quotes.
Why People Love Reading
Ask readers why they keep at it and you rarely hear a reason that sounds like a goal. They talk about the story that swallowed an afternoon, about meeting a character who felt more real than the people on the train, about seeing a place or a life from the inside. Some love the quiet: twenty minutes with a book is one of the few times the day stops asking anything of you. Others love the company, the shared shelf of a favorite author, the friend who says “you have to read this” and means it. The quotes above keep returning to the same few pleasures: escape, companionship, and the simple relief of having somewhere to go.
How to Use Reading Quotes
A good reading quote earns its place where readers already are. Slip a short one into a bookmark or the front page of a reading journal. Put one on a library display or above a classroom reading corner. Open a book club meeting with one, or use it as a caption when you share a photo of the stack on your nightstand. If you want one for the wall, our printable quotes are free to download and print.
Reading Quotes FAQ
There is no official answer, but one of the most widely shared is “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,” from George R.R. Martin’s A Dance with Dragons. The oldest on this page is Richard Steele’s 1710 line comparing reading to exercise for the mind.
Richard Steele wrote it in The Tatler, No. 147, in 1710. It is often credited to Joseph Addison, his collaborator, but standard quotation sources credit Steele.
Try Stephen King’s “Books are a uniquely portable magic,” or Emily Dickinson’s “There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away.”
Dr. Seuss’s “The more that you read, the more things you will know” is the classic, since it was written for early readers. Mason Cooley’s “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are” suits older students. For broader school themes, see our education quotes.
Looking for something else? Browse our lifelong learning quotes or our personal growth quotes.