"A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading."
C.S. Lewis, 1898-1963, English Literary Scholar

"Writing in English is the most ingenious torture ever devised for sins committed in previous lives. The English reading public explains the reason why."
James Joyce, 1882-1941, Irish Novelist

"What do we ever get nowadays from reading to equal the excitement and the revelation in those first fourteen years?"
Graham Greene, 1904-91, English Novelist

"I don't think of work, only of gradually regaining my health through reading, rereading, reflecting."
Rainer Maria Rilke, 1875-1926, German Poet

"When he was reading, he drew his eyes along over the leaves, and his heart searched into the sense, but his voice and tongue were silent."
St. Augustine of Hippo, AD 354-430, Early Christian Theologian, writing of St. Ambrose

"Mr. Quarmby laughed in a peculiar way, which was the result of long years of mirth-subdual in the Reading-room."
George Gissing, 1857-1903, English Novelist, from New Grub Street (1891)

"Poetry is not the most important thing in life...I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and Sucking sweets."
Dylan Thomas, 1914-1953, Welsh Poet

"Sao Paulo is like Reading, only much farther away."
Peter Fleming, 1907-71, English Journalist and Travel Writer

"One of Edward's Mistresses was Jane Shore, who has had a play written about her, but it is a tragedy and therefore not worth reading."
Jane Austen, 1775-1817, English Novelist

"War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading."
Thomas Hardy, 1840-1928, English Novelist and Poet

"People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading."
Logan Pearsall Smith, 1865-1946, American-born Man of Letters

"I have too much indulged my sedentary humour and have been a rake in reading."
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1689-1762, English Writer

"Reading and marriage don't go well together."
Moliere (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin) 1622-1673, French Comic Dramatist

"The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write: a man will turn over half a library to make one book."
Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English Poet, Critic, and Lexicographer

"Reading isn't an occupation we encourage among police officers. We try to keep the paper work down to a minimum."
Joe Orton, 1933-1967, English Dramatist

"I have always suspected that the reading is right, which requires many words to prove it wrong; and the emendation wrong, that cannot without so much labour appear to be right."
Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English Poet, Critic, and Lexicographer

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."
Richard Steele, 1672-1729, Irish-born Essayist and Dramatist

"The reading of good books is like a conversation with the best men of past centuries - in fact like a prepared conversation, in which they reveal only the best of their thoughts."
Rene Descartes, 1596-1650, French Philosopher and Mathematician

"What toys, the daily reading of such a book, may work in the will of a young gentleman, or a young maid...wise men can judge, and honest men do pity."
Roger Ascham, 1515-1568, English Scholar, Writer and Courtier, Of Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur As Unsuitable For The Young

"The reading or non-reading of a book - will never keep down a single petticoat."
Lord Bryon, 1788-1824, English Poet

"Never be completely idle, but either reading, or writing, or praying, or meditating, or at some useful work for the common good."
Thomas a Kempis, c.1380-1471, German Ascetical Writer

"Digressions, incontestably, are the sunshine; ---they are the life, the soul of reading; ---take them out of this book for instance,---you might as well take the book along with them."
Laurence Sterne, 1713-1768, English Novelist

"One should not [recite one's prayers] as if he were reading a letter."
The Talmud, Compilation of Jewish Civil and Ceremonial Law and Legend

"[Education] has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading, an easy prey to sensations and cheap appeals."
G.M. Trevelyan, 1876-1962, English Historian