Quotes to inspire and reflect

A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.

IF BOOKS ARE NOT GOOD COMPANY, WHERE WILL I FIND IT?

Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners.

Having to read a footnote resembles having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love.

I would sooner read a timetable or a catalogue than nothing at all.

A BOOK IS A FRAGILE CREATURE, IT SUFFERS THE WEAR OF TIME, IT FEARS RODENTS, THE ELEMENTS, CLUMSY HANDS.

Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.

WHEN I GET A LITTLE MONEY, I BUY BOOKS; AND IF ANY IS LEFT, I BUY FOOD AND CLOTHES.

For most of my reading I go back to the old ones – for comfort.

A BOOK IS A MIRROR: IF AN ASS PEERS INTO IT, YOU CAN’T EXPECT AN APOSTLE TO LOOK OUT.

There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

ONE HATES AN AUTHOR THAT’S ALL AUTHOR.

No human being ever spoke of scenery for above two minutes at a time, which makes me suspect that we hear too much of it in literature.

IT IS WHAT YOU READ WHEN YOU DON’T HAVE TO THAT DETERMINES WHAT YOU WILL BE WHEN YOU CAN’T HELP IT.

THE PERSON, BE IT GENTLEMAN OR LADY, WHO HAS NOT PLEASURE IN A GOOD NOVEL, MUST BE INTOLERABLY STUPID.

The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.

The only demand I make of my reader is that he should devote his whole life to reading my works.

A MAN CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH RED WINE, TOO MANY BOOKS, OR TOO MUCH AMMUNITION.

You can’t teach an old dogma new tricks.

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow.

REALITY PROVIDES US WITH FACTS SO ROMANTIC THAT IMAGINATION ITSELF COULD ADD NOTHING TO THEM.

FROM THE BEGINNING MEN USED GOD TO JUSTIFY THE UNJUSTIFIABLE.

We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession.

I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.

HERESY IS ONLY ANOTHER WORD FOR FREEDOM OF THOUGHT.

It is the test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.

I like the scientific spirit – the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them.

We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.

Men have become the tools of their tools.

COMPUTERS ARE LIKE OLD TESTAMENT GODS; LOTS OF RULES AND NO MERCY.

BOOKS DON’T NEED BATTERIES.

ONE MACHINE CAN DO THE WORK OF 50 ORDINARY MEN. NO MACHINE CAN DO THE WORK OF ONE EXTRAORDINARY MAN.

JUST LIVING IS NOT ENOUGH… ONE MUST HAVE SUNSHINE, FREEDOM, AND A LITTLE FLOWER.

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

London is a riddle. Paris is an explanation.

In my time, the follies of the town crept slowly among us, but now they travel faster than a stage-coach.

We do not look in great cities for our best morality.

THE LOWEST AND VILEST ALLEYS IN LONDON DO NOT PRESENT A MORE DREADFUL RECORD OF SIN THAN DOES THE SMILING AND BEAUTIFUL COUNTRYSIDE.

A large city cannot be experientially known; its life is too manifold for any individual to be able to participate in it.

The city is recruited from the country.

City life is millions of people being lonesome together.

A SMALL COUNTRY TOWN IS NOT THE PLACE IN WHICH ONE WOULD CHOOSE TO QUARREL WITH A WIFE; EVERY HUMAN BEING IN SUCH PLACES IS A SPY.

When I am in the country I wish to vegetate like the country.

Anyone can be good in the country. There are no temptations there.

PARIS IS A WOMAN BUT LONDON IS AN INDEPENDENT MAN PUFFING HIS PIPE IN A PUB.

I have never understood why anybody agreed to go on being a rustic after about 1400.

WHAT EXACTLY DO I THINK ABOUT WHEN I’M RUNNING? I DON’T HAVE A CLUE.

Of course I have played outdoor games. I once played dominoes in an open-air cafe in Paris.