Good Book Quotes

Like serious reading itself, travel has now become an act of resistance against the distractions of the electronic age, and against all the worries that weigh us down, thanks to that age. A good book deserves to be finished, just as a haunting landscape tempts further experience of it, and further research into it. Travel and serious reading, because they demand sustained focus, stand athwart the nonexistent attention spans that deface our current time on Earth. ~ Robert D. Kaplan

Now that you're an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or you're told that you're "in your head too much", a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral.
Or maybe there's another word for such people: thinkers. ~ Susan Cain

I have built a city from the books I've read. A good book sings a a timeless music that is heard in the choir lofts, and balconies, and theaters that thrived within that secret city inside me. ~ Pat Conroy

My goofiest-sounding secret is that I also believe in magic. Sometimes I call it God and sometimes I call it light, and I believe in it because every now and then I read a really good book or hear a really good song or have a really good conversation with a friend and they seem to have some kind of shine to them. The list I keep of these moments in the back of my journal is comprised less of times when I was laughing or smiling and more of times when I felt like I could feel the colors in my eyes deepening from the display before me. Times in which I felt I was witnessing an all-encompassing representation of life driven by an understanding that, coincidence or not, our existence is a peculiar thing, and perhaps the greatest way to honor it is to just be human. To be happy AND sad, and everything else. And yeah, living is a pain, and I say I hate everyone and everything, and I don't exude much enthusiasm when sandwiched between fluorescent lighting and vinyl flooring for seven hours straight, and I will probably mumble a bunch about how much I wish I could sleep forever the next time I have to wake up at 6 AM. But make no mistake about it: I really do like living. I really, truly do. ~ Tavi Gevinson

A good book allows the imagination to soar. ~ Clive Maddison

A good book is a kind of paper club, serving to rouse the slumbrous and to silence the obtuse. ~ Edward Abbey

But the Good Book said a lot of things. Like 'love thy neighbor' and ' do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. If nothing else, wasn't the message of the Good Book to live and let live? So how could the Crosses call themselves 'God's chosen' and still treat us the way they did? ~ Malorie Blackman

People listening to songs are like people reading novels: for a few minutes, for a few hours, someone else gets to come in and hijack that part of your brain that's always thinking. A good book or song kidnaps your interior voice and does all the driving. With the artist in charge you're free for a little while to leave your body and be someone else. ~ Douglas Coupland

She chose books because they never left her lonely the way that Kirk had left her lonely. BEcause company was often nothing of the kind, whereas a good book always was.
She chose books for the smell of fresh-pressed pages, for the yellow-brown musk of library mould, but always for the breathy kiss of paper rustling. She chose books because some of the held prose that made her weep, or poetry that winded her, and words that mae her heart skip beats.
She chose books because some came readey-made with characters that seemed like perfect versions of hrself, all of them little proofs that somehow, somewhere, it might just be possible for her to be better: to be popular, powerful, sexy and smart.
She chose books because they lied to her with more conviction than people ever had. ~ Dan Micklethwaite

We love to learn because learning feels good. It both satisfies and stimulates curiosity. Reading a good book, having a meaningful conversation, listening to great music - just doing these things make us happy. They have no extrinsic purpose. To give them one takes away from their joy. ~ Zander Sherman

I enjoy art, architecture, museums, churches and temples; anything that gives me insight into the history and soul of the place I'm in. I can also be a beach bum - I like to laze in the shade of a palm tree with a good book or float in a warm sea at sundown. ~ Cherie Lunghi

It is with a good book as it is with good company. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Good Book says that the meek shall inherit the earth and I expect that's probably the truth. I aint no freethinker, but I'll tell you what. I'm a long way from bein convinced that it's all that good a thing. ~ Cormac McCarthy

We're not really taught how to recreate constructively. We need to do more than find diversions; we need to restore and expand ourselves. Our idea of relaxing is all too often to plop down in front of the television set and let its pandering idiocy liquefy our brains. Shutting off the thought process is not rejuvenating; the mind is like a car battery
it recharges by running. You may be surprised to find how quickly daily routine and the demands of "just getting by" absorb your waking hours. You may be surprised to find how quickly you start to see your politics and religion become matters of habit rather than thought and inquiry. You may be surprised to find how quickly you start to see your life in terms of other people's expectations rather than issues. You may be surprised to find out how quickly reading a good book sounds like a luxury. ~ Bill Watterson

I was inspired by the marvelous example of Giacometti, the great sculptor. He always said that his dream was to do a bust so small that it could enter a matchbook, but so heavy that no one could lift it. That's what a good book should be. ~ Elie Wiesel

It doesn't matter that your painting is small. Kopecks are also small, but when a lot are put together they make a ruble. Each painting displayed in a gallery and each good book that makes it into a library, no matter how small they may be, serve a great cause: accretion of the national wealth. ~ Anton Chekhov

A particularly good book had a way of opening new spaces in one's mind. It even invited you to come back later and rummage through what you'd learned. ~ Roshani Chokshi

A good book is one of the best vacations one can ever take at a moments notice without leaving where they are. ~ Lynn

Whoever said diamonds were a girl's best friend sure hasn't read a good book. ~ Savannah Gostlin

If it is a distinction to have written a good book, it is also a disgrace to have written a bad one. ~ Christian Nestell Bovee

You're grounded!!!! You can't go out and prowl the L.A. streets. You've got to do something more edifying, emboldening and altogether more groovy. You gots to stay home tonite and read a good book!!!!!!!!!! ~ James Ellroy

I wish I could fall asleep. But with a good book in my hands, I stay awake to finish reading. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

drama is a good book ~ Raina Telgemeier

The intensity of childhod reading, the instant and complete absorption in a book - a good book, a bad book, in any kind of book - is something I would give much to recapture ~ Lucy Mangan

But life is glorious when it is happy; days are carefree when they are happy; the interplay of thought and imagination is far and superior to that of muscle and sinew. Let me tell you, if you don't know it from your own experience, that reading a good book, losing yourself in the interest of words and thoughts, is for some people (me, for instance) an incredible intensity of happiness. ~ Isaac Asimov

There are few things I like better in life than getting lost in a good book. ~ John Grisham

I think it's important to present yourself as a professional. While writing a good book is critical, nothing will cancel that out faster than behaving like an amateur. I cringe every time I see an author arguing with a reader who left a poor review, or fighting with their friends on Facebook … or publicly bashing their agents or publishers. ~ Alistair Cross

When a mere girl, my mother offered me a dollar if I would read the Bible through; ... despairing of reconciling many of its absurd statements with even my childish philosophy, ... I became a sceptic, doubter, and unbeliever, long ere the 'Good Book' was ended. ~ Elmina Drake Slenker

Your life story would not make a good book. Don't even try. ~ Fran Lebowitz

What makes a good book and what makes a good movie are totally different things. ~ Seth Grahame-Smith

At times all you need is a bottle of fine old wine, a mellifluous piece of music playing in the background and a good book to spend the entire night in a magical bliss! ~ Avijeet Das

The future of English fiction may rest with this Unknown Public - a reading public of three millions which lies right out of the pale of true literary civilization - which is now waiting to be taught the difference between a good book and a bad. ~ Wilkie Collins

A good book is a story that you cannot wait to finish, but you never, ever want it to end. ~ Sally (Corson) Rogers

The mark of a good book is it changes every time you read it. ~ Anderson Cooper

There was no point in being an angel - that lesson had been drilled into him early and often. Hey, the Bible hadn't been his first choice of reading material, but once foisted on him, he twisted it to his advantage. According to the Good Book, angels got the short end of the stick. Lots of work for very little recognition.

But everyone knew Satan. ~ S.E. Jakes

No one ever committed suicide while reading a good book, but many have tried while trying to write one. ~ Robert Byrne

He needed fresh air and sunshine. A walk in the woods and afterward a good book to read by the fire.
Yeah, that was the life. ~ Josh Lanyon

Stay happy and healthy. Take time to read a good book and live your dreams. I am and loving it! ~ Becky Wilde

A good book tells a story, and the reader is either pleased or displeased, intrigued or bored. A great book invites the reader to respond, to argue, to challenge. ~ Harold S. Kushner

I wanted to see if I could write a good book. ~ James D. Watson

They were like English teachers who took the fun out of a perfectly good book by breaking it down into themes and sentence structures ~ Tawni O'Dell

Oh for a book and a shady nook, Either indoors or out, with the green leaves whispering overhead, or the street cries all about. Where I may read at all my ease both of the new and old, For a jolly good book whereon to look is better to me than gold ~ John Wilson

Buy good books, and read them; the best books are the commonest, and the last editions are always the best, if the editors are not blockheads. ~ Lord Chesterfield

An honest bookstore would post the following sign above its 'self-help' section: 'For true self-help, please visit our philosophy, literature, history and science sections, find yourself a good book, read it, and think about it. ~ Roger Ebert

Who needs sleep when you have a good book? ~ Elizabeth Ann Patterson

Think about what you have to share that could be of some value to people. Share a handy tip you've discovered while working. Or a link to an interesting article. Mentition a good book you're reading. ~ Austin Kleon

I didn't write with a target audience in mind. What excited me was how much I would enjoy writing about Harry. I never thought about writing for children - children's books chose me. I think if it is a good book anyone will read it. ~ J.K. Rowling

If you take a really good book, then the potential is for a really good film. But you've got to get it right. ~ Christopher Hampton

Good books tell the truth, even when they're about things that never have been and never will be. They're truthful in a different way. ~ Stanislaw Lem

A good book is the plectrum with which our else silent lyres are struck. ~ Henry David Thoreau

There is nothing better than a quiet night, a cup of tea, and a quiet place to read a good book, ~ Deb Pearson

A sure sign of a good book is that you like it more the older you get. ~ Georg C. Lichtenberg

For friends ... do but look upon good Books: they are true friends, that will neither flatter nor dissemble. ~ Francis Bacon

I let things happen because I never make a film that people ask me to do or bring me a package with a good book and two actors and all that. I think cinema should be made by coming from nowhere to becoming a film. This I believe in. ~ Agnes Varda

Every abridgement of a good book is a fool abridged. ~ Michel De Montaigne

A good book is a good friend. He will talk to you if you want him to talk, but will shut up if you don't want him to talk. - A library is a collection of good friends. ~ Lyman Abbott

A good book makes you feel better about the world ~ Me

There are times in one's life when a good book - the right book -
feels like a voice speaking in the darkness,
reaching out from the past;
providing solace when all else seems lost. ~ Justine Picardie

A great writer is a great writer ... Tolstoy was not a woman, but 'Anna Karenina' is still a pretty good book. ~ Phil Klay

If the Bible is called the Good Book, it's not because its people are. Blood flows as freely through the stories as the ink through the quills that penned them. ~ Max Lucado

It only takes one minute to find a really good book, but it can give you a lifetime of memories when you read a really good book that leaves you with lasting impression. ~ Nahisha McCoy

A great book is a homing device
For navigating paradise.
A good book somehow makes you care
About the comfort of a chair.
A bad book owes to many trees
A forest of apologies. ~ J. Patrick Lewis

A book I suggest to everybody is called, "Mysterious Stranger" by Mark Twain. It's about Satan and his visit here. A good book. ~ Richard Ramirez

I have found that the morning is far more accessible when a good book awaits you. ~ Chris Matakas

Good books are for consideration after, too. ~ Stephen King

I love books, by the way, way more than movies. Movies tell you what to think. A good book lets you choose a few thoughts for yourself. Movies show you the pink house. A good book tells you there's a pink house and lets you paint some of the finishing touches, maybe choose the roof style,park your own car out front. My imagination has always topped anything a movie could come up with. Case in point, those darned Harry Potter movies. That was so not what that part-Veela-chick, Fleur Delacour, looked like. ~ Karen Marie Moning

I listen a lot to how people speak. I've read a great many good books in my life. I had some excellent English teachers. Surely, those things were helpful. ~ Anthony Bourdain

Have you ever made the world stand still before?"

"What does that mean?"

"It means making a conscious decision to leave the world behind, just for a little bit. To improve yourself and improve the world at the same time. To make yourself move better, and the world move better, when you come back to it. You have to make sure that no one and nothing causes you any problems during that time. Read a good book, watch good movies and above all, enjoy good conversation with someone who inspires you. And you know what?"

"What?", I said, excited and intrigued.

"Then the world gives you a reward. The universe moves in favour of those who move it. And the ones who move it are the ones who know how to make it stand still. Do you want to move the world, or do you want the world to move you? ~ Albert Espinosa

But then, it is the mark of a good book that it rewards many readings, is it not? ~ Steven Brust

In the library
I search for a good book.
We have many books,
says Mrs. Rose, the librarian,
and ALL of them are good.
Of course she says that. It's her job.
But do I want to read about
Trucks
Trains and
Transport?
Or even
Horses
Houses and
Hyenas?

In the fiction corner
there are pink boks
full of princesses
and girls who want to be princesses
and black books
about bad boys
and brave boys
and brawny boys.

Where is the book
about a girl
whose poems don't rhyme
and whose Granny is fading?
Pearl, says Mrs. Rose, the bell has rung.

I go back to class
empty-handed
empty headed
empty-hearted. ~ Sally Murphy

Living as he now lived was like reading a good book in a poor translation ... ~ Henry James

We all hygger: gathered around a table for a shared meal or beside a fire on a dark night, when we sit in the corner of our local cafe or wrap ourselves in a blanket at the end of a day on the beach.
Lying spoons, baking in a warm kitchen, bathing by candlelight, being alone in bed with a hot water bottle and a good book - these are all ways to hygge.
Hygge draws meaning from the fabric of ordinary living.
It'a a way of acknowledging the sacred in the secular, of giving something ordinary a special context, spirit and warmth and taking time to make it extraordinary. ~ Louisa Thomsen Brits

The sound of a crackling fire going in the fireplace, a nice warm blanket and a good book is just about heaven for me. ~ E.L. Grimm

Fantasy for me as a kid was real, and I had a fantasy about what life was, whether it was sort of wicked and dire, or wholly normal, or whatever. Anything really close to home is not, it seems to me, what a good book should be about. ~ Diana Wynne Jones

...A good Book, has no Ending... ~ E. E. Cummings

Even a bad man is better than a good book. ~ Maxim Gorky

It's like reading a good book. The kind where you don't want to skip pages to see what happens at the end. Each moment is a story in itself. ~ Renee Carlino

There's nothing I like better than a good book discussion with someone who can hold up his end of the argument. ~ Stephen King

Good books are irrefutable, and bad books refute themselves. ~ Remy De Gourmont

READING A GOOD BOOK IS LIKE LIVING ANOTHER LIFE. THE BEST PART IS, YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIKE IT. ~ Phillip Knight

I think we all like to get away from our troubles and worries with a good book. ~ Linda Lael Miller

Books seem a little old-fashioned, but hey, I can do old-fashioned if it's good. ~ Tim Tharp

The reason why so few good books are written is that so few people who can write know anything. ~ Walter Bagehot

In an age like our own, when the artist is an altogether exceptional person, he must be allowed a certain amount of irresponsibility, just as a pregnant woman is. Still, no one would say that a pregnant woman should be allowed to commit murder, nor would anyone make such a claim for the artist, however gifted. If Shakespeare returned to the earth to-morrow, and if it were found that his favourite recreation was raping little girls in railway carriages, we should not tell him to go ahead with it on the ground that he might write another King Lear. And, after all, the worst crimes are not always the punishable ones. By encouraging necrophilic reveries one probably does quite as much harm as by, say, picking pockets at the races. One ought to be able to hold in one's head simultaneously the two facts that Dali is a good draughtsman and a disgusting human being. The one does not invalidate or, in a sense, affect the other. The first thing that we demand of a wall is that it shall stand up. If it stands up, it is a good wall, and the question of what purpose it serves is separable from that. And yet even the best wall in the world deserves to be pulled down if it surrounds a concentration camp. In the same way it should be possible to say, "This is a good book or a good picture, and it ought to be burned by the public hangman." Unless one can say that, at least in imagination, one is shirking the implications of the fact that an artist is also a citizen and a human being. ~ George Orwell

A good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser. Not just more knowledgeable - books that provide nothing but information can produce that result. But wiser, in the sense that you are more deeply aware of the great and enduring truths of human life. ~ Mortimer J. Adler

Every bestselling author was once completely unknown. A good book will eventually find its place in the world. ~ Mark Rubinstein

I Need a Good Book

I need a good story.
I need a good book.
The kind that explodes
Off the shelf.
I need some good writing,
Alive and exciting,
To contemplate all by myself.

I need a good novel,
I need a good read.
I probably need
Two or three.
I need a good tale
Of love and betrayal
Or perhaps an adventure at sea.

I need a good saga.
I need a good yarn.
A momentous and mightily
Or slight one.
But with thousands and thousands
And thousands of books,
I need someone to tell me
The right one.

-John Lithgow ~ John Lithgow

No good book, or good thing of any sort, shows its best face at first. ~ Thomas Carlyle

A good book deserves an active reading. The activity of reading does not stop with the work of understanding what a book says. It must be completed by the work of criticism, the work of judging. The undemanding reader fails to satisfy this requirement, probably even more than he fails to analyze and interpret. He not only makes no effort to understand; he also dismisses a book simply by putting it aside and forgetting it. Worse than faintly praising it, he damns it by giving it no critical consideration whatever. ~ Mortimer J. Adler

For a moment, we all just stared out the window at the crowds. "I'm reading a good book now," Obama said. "It reminds you, the ability to tell stories about who we are is what makes us different from animals. We're just chimps without it." He described how all civilization, religion, nations were rooted in stories, which could be harnessed for good or bad. Obama's tendency to take the long view was getting even more pronounced in his last year in office. But in his own way, he was also telling me that everything was okay, that this was now just one more subject in our endless conversation about everything.
"What's the book?" I asked, looking for something to grab on to.
"It's called Sapiens. You should check it out." Perhaps sensing that this was sensitive terrain, he changed the subject. ~ Ben Rhodes

I think it's important to find projects that evoke people into conversation. It's like reading a good book. You want to talk about it. ~ Juno Temple

While the stoning of children for heresy has fallen out of fashion in our country, you will not hear a moderate Christian or Jew arguing for a "symbolic" reading of passages of this sort. [ ... ] it is only by ignoring such barbarisms that the Good Book can be reconciled with life in the modern world. This is a problem for "moderation" in religion: it has nothing underwriting it other than the unacknowledged neglect of the letter of the divine law. ~ Sam Harris

What a joy is there in a good book, writ by some great master of thought, who breaks into beauty as in summer the meadow into grass and dandelions and violets, with geraniums and manifold sweetness. ~ Theodore Parker

Take time for good books; time to absorb the thoughts of poets and philosophers, seers and prophets. ~ Wilferd Peterson

The only thing better than a good book is a really good book! ~ James McLaughlin

Ten Things To Do In January:

•Read a good book
•Get a Library Card
•Walk 30 minutes a day
•Send a Birthday card to a friend
•Invest in a Fitness Tracker
•Buy a Coin jar and save those quarters and nickels
•Donate to a Charity
•Volunteer 45 minutes of your time to an Organization
•Take a Yoga Class
•Volunteer at Bingo night a Nursing Home ~ Charmaine J. Forde

A good book is a book you want to read all in one day but to last forever ~ Shelby Pontius

Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book. ~ Bill Watterson

Cut back on your rent or cut back on what you spend on food but never worry about investing money in a good book. ~ Robin S. Sharma

It doesn't really matter what "genre" your book is. What matters is that it's a good book of its kind. Whatever that kind may be. ~ Margaret Atwood