Reading Quotes

Collecting reading quotes is a bit of a hobby of mine. I've always loved reading and I find it fascinating that so many well-known and not-so-well-known people have expressed their joy in reading and the benefits they've gained by reading widely and often throughout their lives.

Over the past sixteen years of reading to my three children, I've collected many quotes about reading, the best of which are shared on this page. 

Some are famous quotations and some are less well-known. What they have in common is that each reading quote captures for me the joy and the special, secret pleasure I feel when I lose myself in a wonderful book.

These reading quotes also remind me of how lucky I was to have a mum who loved reading and who read aloud to her children from the time we were babies. I don't think my Mum ever made a conscious decision to raise us to be readers. She simply loved to read and passed that love on to us by reading aloud. This meant that it was an absolutely natural thing for me to read aloud to my own three children when they came along.

I hope you and your children enjoy my favourite reading quotes. 

Reading Quotes

"The love of learning, 
The sequestered nooks, 
And all the sweet serenity of books." 
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 

"'What is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversations?'" ~ Lewis Carroll, from 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' 

"I must say that I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a book." ~ Groucho Marx

"To read a book for the first time is to make an acquaintance with a new friend. To read it for a second time is to meet an old one." ~ Chinese saying 

"No book is really worth reading at age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty." ~ C S Lewis 

"We read to know we are not alone."
~ C S Lewis

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island." ~ Walt Disney

"Books are a uniquely portable magic." ~ Stephen King

"To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all of the miseries of life." ~ W Somerset Maugham 

"Fiction is to the grown man what play is to the child; it is there that he changes the atmosphere and tenor of his life." ~ Robert Louis Stevenson 

"If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books." ~ Roald Dahl 

"Books were my personal pass to freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi." ~ Oprah Winfrey 

"Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read." ~ Marilyn Jager Adams, child development expert 

"The more that you read, 
the more things you will know. 
The more that you learn, 
the more places you'll go." 
~ Dr Seuss

"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all." 
~ Jacqueline Kennedy 

"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." ~ Emilie Buchwald, children's author

"You may have tangible wealth untold.
Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.
Richer than I you can never be -
I had a mother who read to me." 
~ Gillian Strickland, poet 

"A book is the most effective weapon against intolerance and ignorance." 
~ Lyndon Baines Johnson 

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him." ~ Maya Angelou, poet 

"If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." ~ Albert Einstein 

"So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away.
And in its place you can install,
A lovely bookshelf on the wall." 
~ Roald Dahl in 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' 

"I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers. To become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage." ~ Roald Dahl

"Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers." ~ Harry S Truman