Inspiring Reading Quotes to Spark Your Love for Books

Whether you’re a bookworm, a casual reader, or just someone looking for a little inspiration to crack open that novel sitting on your shelf, these quotes about reading will reignite your passion for the written word.

1. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin

2. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” — Harper Lee

3. “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” — Stephen King

4. “Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” — Jim Rohn

5. “We read to know we are not alone.” — William Nicholson

6. “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” — Frederick Douglass

7. “Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.” — Mason Cooley

8. “That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” — Jhumpa Lahiri

9. “So many books, so little time.” — Frank Zappa

10. “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” — Jorge Luis Borges

11. “Reading is dreaming with open eyes.” — Unknown

12. “A book is a gift you can open again and again.” — Garrison Keillor

13. “There is no friend as loyal as a book.” — Ernest Hemingway

14. “Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” — John Locke

15. “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” — Joseph Addison

16. “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.” — René Descartes

17. “Books wash away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” — Berthold Auerbach

18. “No two persons ever read the same book.” — Edmund Wilson

19. “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” — Victor Hugo

20. “A good book is an event in my life.” — Stendhal

21. “You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C.S. Lewis

22. “Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities.” — Ben Okri

23. “The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” — Mark Twain

24. “Books are the mirrors of the soul.” — Virginia Woolf

25. “Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere.” — Jean Rhys

26. “Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.” — Voltaire

27. “Books break the shackles of time proof that humans can work magic.” — Carl Sagan

28. “The world belongs to those who read.” — Rick Holland

29. “Reading is an escape, an education, and an illumination.” — Lailah Gifty Akita

30. “I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.” — J.K. Rowling