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160 Quotes About Books & Reading

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Many of us have special memories of the books that have inspired us, and have learned the profound effect that reading the right book can have at the right moment. If you’re short on time, reading some quotes about books is the next best thing.

Books have the power to transport us to new worlds and different times , but they can also take us back to the important moments in our own lives.

From building your vocabulary to reducing stress, preventing age-related cognitive decline and increasing your ability to empathize, reading books is an easy way to look after your mind and body.

Whether you’re an avid reader or wish you read more, we hope you enjoy these quotes about books and reading!

Page Contents

Quotes About Books

′Classic′ – a book which people praise and don’t read. Mark Twain

Sleep is good, he said, and books are better. George R.R. Martin

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. Charles W. Eliot

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book. Jane Smiley, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Novel

The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night. Isabel Allende

If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book. J.K. Rowling

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time. Carl Sagan

When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes. Erasmus

Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks. Dr. Seuss

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

A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return. Salman Rushdie

I love the smell of book ink in the morning. Umberto Eco

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

It is is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially. Donna Tartt, The Secret History

Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten. Neil Gaiman

Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people – people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book. E.B. White

A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors. Charles Baudelaire

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

A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading. William Styron

The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries. Kurt Vonnegut

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx

I love books. I adore everything about them. I love the feel of the pages on my fingertips. They are light enough to carry, yet so heavy with worlds and ideas. I love the sound of the pages flicking against my fingers. Print against fingerprints. Books make people quiet, yet they are so loud. Nnedi Okorafor

Books were my pass to personal freedom. Oprah Winfrey

No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books. Elizabeth Barrett Browning

A half-read book is a half-finished love affair. David Mitchell

If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads. Francois Mauriac

Some of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories. Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall

A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest. C.S. Lewis

Wear the old coat and buy the new book. Austin Phelps

The best books… are those that tell you what you know already. George Orwell, 1984

It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. C.S. Lewis

Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Reading one book is like eating one potato chip. Diane Duane

For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die. Anne Lamott

In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you. Mortimer J. Adler

I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house. Henry Ward Beecher

I guess there are never enough books. John Steinbeck

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries. Anne Herbert

Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books. Ursula K. LeGuin

A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. Terry Pratchett

If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it. Toni Morrison

What a blessing it is to love books as I love them;- to be able to converse with the dead, and to live amidst the unreal! Thomas Babington Macaulay

Of course anyone who truly loves books buys more of them than he or she can hope to read in one fleeting lifetime. A good book, resting unopened in its slot on a shelf, full of majestic potentiality, is the most comforting sort of intellectual wallpaper. David Quammen

You know you’ve read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend. Paul Sweeney

I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books. Gary Paulsen

Happiness. That’s what books smells like. Happiness. That’s why I always wanted to have a book shop. What better life than to trade in happiness? Saran MacLean

Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don’t you agree? Christopher Paolini

Quotes About Reading

Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write. Annie Proulx

Reading brings us unknown friends. Honore de Belzac

My alma mater was books, a good library…. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. Malcolm X

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

Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while. Malorie Blackman

We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else’s mind. Anna Quindlen

Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world. Napoleon Bonaparte

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. Henry David Thoreau

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison

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

Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I’d rather boast about the ones I’ve read. Jorge Luis Borges

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. Mary Wortley Montagu

A capacity, and taste, for reading gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. Abraham Lincoln

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. Rene Descartes

You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive. James Baldwin

Reading—the best state yet to keep absolute loneliness at bay. William Styron

The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story. Ursula K. LeGuin

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

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

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift. Kate DiCamillo

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

Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them. George Saunders

Reading—even browsing—an old book can yield sustenance denied by a database search. James Gleick

Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work. Khaled Hosseini

I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time. Virginia Woolf

Reading means borrowing. Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds. Roxane Gay

Read. Read. Read. Just don’t read one type of book. Read different books by various authors so that you develop different style. R.L. Stine

Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading. Rainer Maria Rilke

The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours. Alan Bennett, The History Boys

It wasn’t until I started reading and found books they wouldn’t let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else. John Waters

Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly. Sir Francis Bacon

The world was hers for the reading. Betty Smith

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

If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that. Stephen King

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader. Robert Frost

Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in your head. Paul Auster

A peasant that reads is a prince in waiting. Walter Mosley

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul. Joyce Carol Oates

A word after a word after a word is power. Margaret Atwood

Only a generation of readers will spawn a generation of writers. Steven Spielberg

She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live. Annie Dillard

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

Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window. William Faulkner

Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you. Louis L’Amour

Reading was a joy, a desperately needed escape — I didn’t read to learn, I was reading to read. Christian Bauman

Reading is departure and arrival. Terri Guillemets

“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” President Harry Truman

Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real. Nora Ephron

Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. P.J. O’Rourke

Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading. Lena Dunham

The man who does not read good books is no better than the man who can’t. Mark Twain

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight. Robertson Davies

Leaders are always readers. Kevin Trudeau

Ready for more reading? Check out our list of 8 Books for Graduate Students and flip some great pages today.

The Best Literary Quotes

Books are everywhere; and always the same sense of adventure fills us. Second-hand books are wild books, homeless books; they have come together in vast flocks of variegated feather, and have a charm which the domesticated volumes of the library lack. Virginia Woolf, Street Haunting

Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today. Holbrook Jackson

Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand. Ezra Pound

I couldn’t live a week without a private library – indeed, I’d part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I’d let go of the 1500 or so books I possess. H.P. Lovecraft

Think of this – that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other. A.S. Byatt, Possession

If you stop to think about it, you’ll have to admit that all the stories in the world consist essentially of twenty-six letters. The letters are always the same, only the arrangement varies. From letters words are formed, from words sentences, from sentences chapters, and from chapters stories. Michael Ende

There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away. Emily Dickinson

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. Oscar Wilde

In the end, we’ll all become stories. Margaret Atwood

Reading is my favorite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read. Anne Brontë

You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. Ray Bradbury

I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! — When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Ray Bradbury, Farenheit 451

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

So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone. Roald Dahl, Matilda

Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry. Cassandra Clare

Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though. J.D. Salinger

A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… the man who never reads lives only one. George R.R. Martin

We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read. Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in. Robert Louis Stevenson

Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw. David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them. Lemony Snicket, Horseradish

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond. C.S. Lewis

Isn’t it odd how much fatter a book gets when you’ve read it several times?” Mo had said…”As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells…and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like a pressed flower…both strange and familiar. Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story’s voice makes everything its own. John Berger, Keeping a Rendezvous

I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we’re reading doesn’t wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief. Franz Kafka

We hope you’ve loved these quotes about books and reading.

It’s never too late (or early) to expand your horizons and start reading, and reading books is even good for your physical and mental health . So star turning those pages and getting inspired through reading today.

Natalie Seale

3 thoughts on “160 Quotes About Books & Reading”

Thank you for all of these book quotes. I like to write them in my book journal and reread them often.

Thanks so much, for this wonderful book quotes.

My favorite quote is “When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.”– Erasmus

Thank you for this very interesting collection of thought-provoking quotes. If felt good to agree and disagree with them all – with none leaving me untouched.

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An Essential List of the 90 Best Quotes about Books

Even though I’m a book blogger and an author, I am frequently stumped for words that express how much I love books. That’s why I’m so grateful that many of the wisest and wittiest thinkers across time have managed to put what we love about books into words. This past summer, I finally decided to compile my bookish quote collection in one volume, which I published in July. Over the course of writing my book A Reader’s Library of Book Quotes , I gathered over 400 quotes about the importance of books and reading. (Read more about my bestselling bookish quote collection here.)

In this epic list of 90 bookish quotes, you’ll find a sampling of all the insightful, funny quotes about books I collected while curating my book quote anthology. This essential collection of 90 bookish quotes captures the life of a book worm and has many uses. For instance, if you’re looking for book quotes for Instagram captions (or Instagram captions for book pictures), ideas for inscriptions on gift books, and bookish quote decoration ideas, you’ve come to the right place. For thousands of years, books have inspired passion in readers. Now read some of the best of the best bookish quotes spanning time and space.

Want even more quotes? Check out my bestselling, ultimate collection of 400+ bookish quotes, A Reader’s Library of Book Quotes .

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Sarah S. Davis is the founder of Broke by Books, a blog about her journey as a schizoaffective disorder bipolar type writer and reader. Sarah's writing about books has appeared on Book Riot, Electric Literature, Kirkus Reviews, BookRags, PsychCentral, and more. She has a BA in English from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Library and Information Science from Clarion University, and an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

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88 Best Quotes About Books & Reading

Books and reading are more than just hobbies — they’re gateways to other worlds, a form of travel while staying in place, and a catalyst for personal and social transformation.

They inspire our imaginations, broaden our horizons, and offer us perspectives we might never encounter otherwise. (And as Arthur taught us , having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card .)

Books are tools for change . They’ve sparked revolutions, preserved cultures, and even helped topple oppressive regimes.

But beyond their societal impact, books also provide personal growth and comfort. From classic literature to modern non-fiction, every page holds the potential for new knowledge and insight. 

Prominent figures and authors have spoken on the impact reading has had on their lives, shaping them into the changemakers they are today.

In this article, we’ve gathered some of the most empowering quotes about books and reading. 

These quotes encapsulate the joy, the education, and the transformative power that comes with being lost in a good book. 

Whether you’re an avid reader seeking affirmation or someone looking to cultivate a reading habit, these quotes are sure to resonate with you and perhaps inspire you to open that book you’ve been meaning to read. 

Dive in and be reminded of the incredible value of a well-written word:

You might also like: Quotes About Banned Books | Good Good Good Book Recommendations | Book Holidays & Months Calendar

The Best Quotes About Books & Reading

Famous quotes.

“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” — Carl Sagan

“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.” — Malala Yousafzai

“I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” — Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.” — Charles Baudelaire

“That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” — Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” — Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” — Maya Angelou

“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.” — Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” — Walt Disney

“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotes About Books

“Great books help you understand, and they help you feel understood.” — John Green

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

“I can never read all the books I want; I can never be all the people I want and live all the lives I want. I can never train myself in all the skills I want. And why do I want? I want to live and feel all the shades, tones and variations of mental and physical experience possible in my life. And I am horribly limited.” — Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

“A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” — William Styron

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.” — Charles W. Eliot

“Books don’t offer real escape, but they can stop a mind scratching itself raw.” — David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

“I am eternally grateful for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else might be going on.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake

“Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.” — Jeanette Winterson

“I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey. You open it, and off you go…” — Sharon Creech

“And most of all, books. They were, in and of themselves, reasons to stay alive. Every book written is the product of a human mind in a particular state. Add all the books together and you get the end sum of humanity. Every time I read a great book I felt I was reading a kind of map, a treasure map, and the treasure I was being directed to was in actual fact myself.” — Matt Haig , Reasons to Stay Alive

“I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them.” — Emma Thompson

“Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.” — Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers

“Books to the ceiling, Books to the sky, My pile of books is a mile high. How I love them! How I need them! I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.” — Arnold Lobel

Reading Quotes

“Read books. Care about things. Get excited. Try not to be too down on yourself. Enjoy the ever-present game of knowing.” — Hank Green

“I think reading is part of the birthright of the human being.” — LeVar Burton

“The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.” — Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.” — Kate DiCamillo

“You should never read just for ‘enjoyment.’ Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends’ insane behavior, or better yet, your own. Pick ‘hard books.’ Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for god’s sake, don’t let me ever hear you say, ‘I can’t read fiction. I only have time for the truth.’ Fiction is the truth, fool! Ever hear of ‘literature’? That means fiction, too, stupid.” — John Waters, Role Models

“We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel… is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

“Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” — John Green , The Fault in Our Stars

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

“I am reading six books at once, the only way of reading; since, as you will agree, one book is only a single unaccompanied note, and to get the full sound, one needs ten others at the same time.” — Virginia Woolf, The Letters of Virginia Woolf: Volume Three, 1923-1928

“Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.” — Alberto Manguel, A Reading Diary

“Read the books they don’t want you to. That’s where the good stuff is.” — LeVar Burton

Inspiring Quotes About Reading

“Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.” — Louis L’Amour

“I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.” — Orhan Pamuk, The New Life

“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” — Malorie Blackman

“Reading is like thinking, like praying, like talking to a friend, like expressing your ideas, like listening to other people’s ideas, like listening to music, like looking at the view, like taking a walk on the beach.” — Roberto Bolaño, 2666

“Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.” — Harold Bloom

“Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real.” — Nora Ephron

“Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms.” — Angela Carter

“Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in your head.” — Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies

“To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” — W. Somerset Maugham, Books and You

“If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.” — François Mauriac

Funny Quotes

“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.” — Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard

“Books were safer than other people anyway.” — Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for trifles.” — Arthur Conan Doyle, The Complete Sherlock Holmes

“People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.” — Logan Pearsall Smith

“The problem with books is that they end.” — Caroline Kepnes, You

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.” — Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” — Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid

“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” — Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet .

“No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.” — Mary Wortley Montagu

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

“Everything in the world exists in order to end up as a book.” — Stéphane Mallarmé

Short Quotes About Books and Reading

“Books may well be the only true magic.” — Alice Hoffman

“Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work.” — Khaled Hosseini

“The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.” — Mary McLeod Bethune

“Think before you speak. Read before you think.” — Fran Lebowitz, The Fran Lebowitz Reader

“A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.” — Lisa Kleypas, A Wallflower Christmas

“Reading brings us unknown friends” — Honoré de Balzac

“In the end, we’ll all become stories.” — Margaret Atwood, Moral Disorder and Other Stories

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.” — Emilie Buchwald

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” — Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“A good book is an event in my life.” — Stendhal, The Red and the Black

“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” — Sir Francis Bacon

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

“The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.” — George Orwell, 1984

“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.” — Margaret Fuller

“Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” — Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

→ Read more short quotes

About Reading Making You a Better Writer

“You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write.” — Annie Proulx

“Read, read, read. Read everything — trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write. If it’s good, you’ll find out. If it’s not, throw it out of the window.” — William Faulkner

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” — Robert Frost

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin

More Quotes & Captions

“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.” — Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

“Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds.” — Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul… It’s like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can’t stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.” — Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

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

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.” — James Baldwin

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” — George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” — J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

“The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest people of the past centuries.” — Descartes

“Man reading should be man intensely alive. The book should be a ball of light in one’s hand.” — Ezra Pound

“Reading is my favourite occupation, when I have leisure for it and books to read.” — Anne Brontë, Agnes Grey

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” — Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!

‍ You might also like: Calendar of Book Holidays | Calendar of Library Celebrations | Quotes About Banned Books

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100 Most Famous Book Quotes of All Time

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Have you ever encountered a quote that pierced your heart, made you laugh uncontrollably, brought a huge smile to your face, or made you bawl your eyes out?

I’m sure many of you have come across such quotes, and being readers, it’s an everyday thing for us, right? Well, it’s definitely for me! 

Certain phrases in a book hold the power to make us feel a plethora of emotions, and they stick with us even after the book is placed in our ‘finished reading section.’ 

Book quotes are worth writing and remembering, and if you connect with them, then they will be with you forever. 

To help you with the collection, I have compiled this list of 100 famous book quotes from some of the world’s most beloved authors and their best-known books. 

With the combination of classics and modern-day books , this list consists of quotes that have struck a chord in the hearts of millions around the world.

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye. _ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will, which I now exert to leave you. _ Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go… _ Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Dr Seuss

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. _ Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Forgiveness condones nothing, but it does cast off the chains of anger, judgment, resentment, denial, and pain that choke growth. In this way, it allows for life, for freedom. So that’s what’s at stake when it comes to forgiveness: freedom. With this freedom, we can feel better, be better, and choose better next time. _ Michele Harper, The Beauty in Breaking

Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone … just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had. _ The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. _ Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte

A man, after he has brushed off the dust and chips of his life, will have left only the hard, clean questions: Was it good or was it evil? Have I done well — or ill? _ John Steinbeck, East of Eden

This above all: To thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. _ William Shakespeare, Hamlet

‘Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.’ _ E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. _ Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. _ George Orwell, Animal Farm

How you live your life is your business. But remember, our hearts and our bodies are given to us only once. Most of us can’t help but live as though we’ve got two lives to live, one is the mockup, the other the finished version, and then there are all those versions in between. _ André Aciman, Call Me By Your Name

And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. _ F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand. _ Margery Williams, Velveteen Rabbit

There are years that ask questions and years that answer. _ Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Memories warm you up from the inside. But they also tear you apart. _ Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Ever’body’s askin’ that. ‘What we comin’ to?’ Seems to me we don’t never come to nothin’. Always on the way. _ John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. _ George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. _ Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

Tomorrow I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day. _ Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

Why, sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. _ Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass

Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. _ Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody. _ J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe. _ Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, many are strong at the broken places. _ Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms

From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood. _ Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering. _ Nicole Krauss, The History of Love

Very few castaways can claim to have survived so long at sea as Mr. Patel, and none in the company of an adult Bengal tiger. _ Yann Martel, Life of Pi

You pierce my soul. I am half agony. Half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. _ Jane Austen, Persuasion

You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget. _ Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Call me Ishmael. _ Herman Melville, Moby Dick

He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart. _ Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing. _ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey

Time is the longest distance between two places. _ Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

The voice of the sea is seductive, never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander in abysses of solitude. _ Kate Chopin, The Awakening

We dream in our waking moments, and walk in our sleep. _ Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun. _ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Memories, even your most precious ones, fade surprisingly quickly. But I don’t go along with that. The memories I value most, I don’t ever see them fading. _ Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go

My advice is, never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time. _ Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

So many things are possible just as long as you don’t know they’re impossible. _ Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth

I can’t stand it to think my life is going so fast and I’m not really living it. _ Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

The same substance composes us — the tree overhead, the stone beneath us, the bird, the beast, the star — we are all one, all moving to the same end. _ P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. _ Ulysses, Alfred Lord Tennyson

I wish, as well as everybody else, to be perfectly happy; but, like everybody else, it must be in my own way. _ Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility

Love is holy because it is like grace – the worthiness of its object is never really what matters. _ Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go on even though you’re scared. _ Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give

And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. _ Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

It doesn’t matter who you are or what you look like, so long as somebody loves you. _ Roald Dahl, The Witches

Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. _ Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time

The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42. _ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts. _ William Shakespeare, As You Like It

Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold. _ S. E. Hinton, The Outsiders

Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living. _ Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Not all those who wander are lost. _ The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkein

Do I love you? My God, if your love were a grain of sand, mine would be a universe of beaches. _ William Goldman, The Princess Bride

You don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. _ Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost. _ Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. _ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

For you, a thousand times over. _ Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner

Then you must teach my daughter this same lesson. How to lose your innocence but not your hope. How to laugh forever. _ Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club

And may the odds be ever in your favor. _ Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games

Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy. _ William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Oh, the places you’ll go! You’ll be on your way up! You’ll be seeing great sights! You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights. _ Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go

The longer I live, the more uninformed I feel. Only the young have an explanation for everything. _ Isabel Allende, City of the Beasts

We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories. _ Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep. _ William Shakespeare, The Tempest

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect. _ Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

Most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution. _ Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

‘But man is not made for defeat,’ he said. ‘A man can be destroyed but not defeated.’ _ Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. _ Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Anything worth dying for is certainly worth living for.” _ Joseph Heller, Catch-22

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. _ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. _ To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

All we can know is that we know nothing. And that’s the height of human wisdom. _ Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

“We accept the love we think we deserve.” _ Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“But it’s like trying to hold on to a fistful of sand: all the little bits slip out of your hands, and then you’re just clutching air and grit.” _ Jenny Han To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before

“Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive, and will come forth later, in uglier ways.” _ Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient

“But the truth is, praise is just like an addiction. The more you get it, the more of it you need just to stay even.” _ The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid

“Knowing too much of your future is never a good thing.” _ Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

“The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.” _ Leigh Bardugo, Six of Crows

“Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.” _ Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

“There is no good and evil, there is only power and those too weak to seek it.” _ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

“God gives us the ugliness so we don’t take the beautiful things in life for granted.” _ Colleen Hoover, Ugly Love

“Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.” _ George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

“And that’s how easy it is for a writer to pretend to be someone they aren’t.” _ Colleen Hoover, Verity

“Nobody likes being alone that much. I don’t go out of my way to make friends, that’s all. It just leads to disappointment. ” _ Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood

“A lot of you cared, just not enough.” _ Jay Asher, Thirteen Reasons Why

“There’s a difference between really loving someone and loving the idea of her.” _ Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl

“Impulsive actions led to trouble, and trouble could have unpleasant consequences.” _ Stieg Larsson, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

“He really had been through death, but he had returned because he could not bear the solitude.” _ Gabriel García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.” _ Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Behind every trial and sorrow that He makes us shoulder, God has a reason.” _ Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

“Perhaps that’s why I find myself looking backward. The past has a clarity I can no longer see in the present.”  _ Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“It had always seemed to him a very plush kind of problem, a privilege, really, to consider whether life was meaningful or not.” _ Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“She had never dreamed there could be so much pain in a life when there was nothing physically wrong. She hurt all the time. _ Stephen King, The Shining

“I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.” _ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It’s splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world. _ L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“Humans are so ill-equipped for peace.” _ V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

“People always clap for the wrong reasons.” _ J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

There are so many incredible, famous book quotes out there; it’s hard to choose just a few! What are your favorite book quotes of all time? Let me know in the comments below!

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80 Inspiring Quotes About Books and Reading

Books are important for the mind, heart, and soul. But don't take it from us: These quotes about reading speak for themselves.

By Stefanie Hargreaves

The power to be found between the pages of a book is formidable, indeed. And these 80 inspiring quotes about books and importance of reading are here to remind you of that. From beloved bestsellers to iconic celebrities, these quotes exemplify the benefits of reading and of a good books to comfort, challenge, and inspire you. For, as author Anna Quindlen says, "Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home."

"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." – Margaret Fuller

"A word after a word after a word is power." – Margaret Atwood

"One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time." – Carl Sagan

"Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world." – Napoleon Bonaparte

"A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors." – Charles Baudelaire

"When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young." – Maya Angelou

"Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift." – Kate DiCamillo

"I think books are like people, in the sense that they’ll turn up in your life when you most need them." – Emma Thompson

"It wasn't until I started reading and found books they wouldn't let us read in school that I discovered you could be insane and happy and have a good life without being like everybody else." – John Waters

"Books are a uniquely portable magic." – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

"Books are mirrors: You only see in them what you already have inside you." – Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Think before you speak. Read before you think. – Fran Lebowitz

"Let’s be reasonable and add an eighth day to the week that is devoted exclusively to reading." – Lena Dunham

"If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book." – J.K. Rowling

"I can feel infinitely alive curled up on the sofa reading a book." – Benedict Cumberbatch

"Some books leave us free and some books make us free." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: They feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship." – Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

"We tell ourselves stories in order to live." – Joan Didion, The White Album

"Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world." – Jeanette Winterson

"A good would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit." – David Sedaris

"Books are, let's face it, better than everything else. If we played Cultural Fantasy Boxing League, and made books go fifteen rounds in the ring against the best that any other art form had to offer, then books would win pretty much every time." – Nick Hornby, The Polysyllabic Spree

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

"As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music. And, as you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul." – Ursula K. Le Guin

"It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words. Even if you don't have friends somewhere, you still have language, and it will find you and wrap its little syllables around you and suddenly there will be a story to live in." – Naomi Shihab Nye, I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven

"Read a lot. Expect something big, something exalting or deepening from a book. No book is worth reading that isn't worth re-reading." – Susan Sontag

"Have books ‘happened’ to you? Unless your answer to that question is ‘yes,’ I’m unsure how to talk to you." – Haruki Murakami

"A story can always break into pieces while it sits inside a book on a shelf; and, decades after we have read it even twenty times, it can open us up, by cut or caress, to a new truth." – Andre Dubus, Meditations from a Movable Chair

"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." – Frederick Douglass

"Literature is the safe and traditional vehicle through which we learn about the world and pass on values from one generation to the next. Books save lives." – Laurie Anderson

"Reading fiction is important. It is a vital means of imagining a life other than our own, which in turn makes us more empathetic beings. Following complex story lines stretches our brains beyond the 140 characters of sound-bite thinking, and staying within the world of a novel gives us the ability to be quiet and alone, two skills that are disappearing faster than the polar icecaps." – Ann Patchett

"Both reading and writing are experiences – lifelong – in the course of which we who encounter words used in certain ways are persuaded by them to be brought mind and heart within the presence, the power, of the imagination." – Eudora Welty

A room without books is like a body without a soul. – Cicero

"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries." – Rene Descartes

"That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet." – Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

"I love the way that each book — any book — is its own journey. You open it, and off you go…" – Sharon Creech

"Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while." – Malorie Blackman

"Reading is a form of prayer, a guided meditation that briefly makes us believe we’re someone else, disrupting the delusion that we’re permanent and at the center of the universe. Suddenly (we’re saved!) other people are real again, and we’re fond of them." – George Saunders

"A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading." – William Styron

"I guess a big part of serious fiction’s purpose is to give the reader, who like all of us is sort of marooned in her own skull, to give her imaginative access to other selves." – David Foster Wallace

"Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it's a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it's a way of making contact with someone else's imagination after a day that's all too real." – Nora Ephron

"Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere." – Jean Rhys

"Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds." – Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive." – James Baldwin

"Reading is important. If you know how to read, then the whole world opens up to you." – Barack Obama

"That is part of the beauty of all literature. You discover that your longings are universal longings, that you’re not lonely and isolated from anyone. You belong." – F. Scott Fitzgerald

"We don’t need a list of rights and wrongs, tables of dos and don’ts: We need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever." – Philip Pullman

"Books may well be the only true magic." – Alice Hoffman, Magic Lessons

"Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know." – Alberto Manguel, A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books

"A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation... A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on, you are enriched threefold." – Henry Miller, The Books in My Life

"Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work." – Khaled Hosseini

"It is known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else." – Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

"If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads." – François Mauriac

"To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life." – W. Somerset Maugham, Books And You

"I don't read a book; I hold a conversation with the author." – Elbert Hubbard

"Some books are so familiar that reading them is like being home again." – Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies... The man who never reads lives only one." – George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

"Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly." – Sir Francis Bacon

"Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul." – Joyce Carol Oates

"A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe." – Madeleine L'Engle

"Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let's not forget this." – Dave Eggers

"Isn't it odd how much fatter a book gets when you've read it several times? As if something were left between the pages every time you read it. Feelings, thoughts, sounds, smells... and then, when you look at the book again many years later, you find yourself there, too, a slightly younger self, slightly different, as if the book had preserved you like pressed flower... both strange and familiar." – Cornelia Funke, Inkspell

"The best books... are those that tell you what you know already." – George Orwell, 1984

"Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one's own self." – Franz Kafka

"Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head." – Paul Auster, The Brooklyn Follies

"Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labelled 'This could change your life.'" – Helen Exley

"There are some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things." – Jeffrey Eugenides, The Marriage Plot

"Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book." – John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

"The best moments in reading are when you come across something–a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things–which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours." – Alan Bennett, The History Boys

"Reading is essential for those who seek to rise about the ordinary." – Jim Rohn

"The story is truly finished–and meaning is made–not when the author adds the last period, but when the reader enters." – Celeste Ng

"One must always be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us." – Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel

"A book is a gift you can open again and again." – Garrison Kellor

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers." – Charles W. Eliot

"Books should go where they will be most appreciated, and not sit unread, gathering dust on a forgotten shelf, don't you agree?" – Christopher Paolini

"Once you've read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you." – Louis L'Amour

"The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us." – Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

"That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you to another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive–all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment." – Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

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51 Beautiful YA Book Quotes To Inspire and Motivate Your Life

Kelly Jensen

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen .

View All posts by Kelly Jensen

There are some quotes from YA books we’re all familiar with. There are the short YA book quotes which become iconic with specific books or cultural moments—think “Okay? Okay,” from John Green’s  The Fault In Our Stars   or “May the odds be ever in your favor” from Suzanne Collins’s  The Hunger Games   or even “Stay Gold, Ponyboy” from S.E. Hinton’s  The Outsiders . But there is a whole world of YA book quotes out there, and even for readers who aren’t familiar with YA fiction, these YA book quotes will inspire, encourage, and motivate you to live your best life. All of these quotes are from YA books, rather than quotes from speeches, essays, or other non-book outlets by young adult authors.

Find below 51 YA book quotes in the categories of relationships, bravery, self-acceptance, and more. And, as always, feel free to add your own favorite YA book quotes in the comments. Let’s make this a collection of great words from the world of young adult literature.

YA Book Quotes About Love, Relationships, and People

1. “If you have two friends in your lifetime, you’re lucky. If you have one good friend, you’re more than lucky.” —from That Was Then, This Is Now by S.E. Hinton

2. “You may be born into a family, but you walk into friendships. Some you’ll discover you should put behind you. Others are worth every risk.” —from They Both Die At The End by Adam Silvera

3. “People really are like houses with vast rooms and tiny windows. And maybe it’s a good thing, the way we never stop surprising each other.” —from Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

4. “I shiver, thinking how easy it is to be totally wrong about people—to see one tiny part of them and confuse it for the whole, to see the cause and think it’s the effect or vice versa.”  —from Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

5. “I think that maybe forgiveness is like change—it comes in small steps.” —from The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

6. “Even in its first faint traces, love could alter a landscape. It wrote unimagined stories and made the most beautiful, forbidding places.” —from Wild Beauty by Anna-Marie McLemore

7. “I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft landing is never guaranteed.” —from This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen

8. “Sometimes, when people get treated as less than human, the best way to help them feel better is to simply treat them as human. Not as victims. Just you as you.” —from All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely

YA Book Quotes On Speaking Up and Using Your Voice

9. “When people don’t express themselves, they die one piece at a time.You’d be shocked at how many adults are really dead inside—walking through their days with no idea who they are, just waiting for a heart attack or cancer or a Mack truck to come along and finish the job. It’s the saddest thing I know.” —from Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

10. “Books are easily destroyed. But words will live as long as people can remember them.” —from Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi

11. “It doesn’t matter how big the body, it’s what you do with it.” —from The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

12. “If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system. That’s much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.” —from Legend by Marie Lu

13. “We who have means and a voice must use them to help those who have neither.” —from These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly

14. “Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.” —from Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

15. “The real courage is in living and suffering for what you believe.” —from Eragon by Christopher Paolini

16. “I feel like I need to speak out, because if no one speaks out, if no one says, this is me, this is what I believe in, and this is why I’m different, and this is why that’s okay, then what’s the point? What’s the point of living in this beautiful, great melting pot where everyone can dare be anything they want to be?” —from When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

YA Book Quotes On Fear and Strength

17. “Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go on even though you’re scared.” —from The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

18. “Making a decision isn’t about knowing every potential consequence. It’s about knowing what you want and chasing a path that takes you in that direction” —from Huntress by Malinda Lo

19. “The funny thing about armor is that it doesn’t just keep other people out. It keeps us in. We build it up around us, not realizing that we’re trapping ourselves.” —from The Unbound by Victoria Schwab

20. “Each of us must confront our own fears, must come face to face with them. How we handle our fears will determine where we go with the rest of our lives. To experience adventure or to be limited by the fear of it.” —from Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume

21. “We can’t know what’s going to happen. We can just try to figure it out as we go along.” —from Amy and Roger’s Epic Detour by Morgan Matson

22. “Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be.” —from An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

23. “Fear doesn’t shut you down; it wakes you up” —from Divergent by Veronica Roth

24. “I’ve seen most of what there is to be afraid of in this world, and to tell you the truth, the worst of them are the ones that make you afraid in the light. The things that your eyes see plainly and can’t forget are worse than huddled black figures left to the imagination. Imagination has a poor memory; it slinks away and goes blurry. Eyes remember for much longer.” —from Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

YA Book Quotes On Being Yourself and Believing In Yourself

25. “We are, largely, who we remember ourselves to be. That’s why habits are so hard to break. If we know ourselves to be liars, we expect not to tell the truth. If we think of ourselves as honest, we try harder.”  —from White Cat by Holly Black

26. “My life is not packaged, Not tidy. There are leftover strands and jagged Edges that cut even my friends.”  —from Street Love by Walter Dean Myers

27. “What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?” —from An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

28. “Just because you can’t experience everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experience anything.” —from Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

29. “Time comes to us softly, slowly. It sits beside us for a while. Then, long before we are ready, it moves on.” —from If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

30. “The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end.” —from UnWholly by Neal Schusterman

31. “I think you gotta be who you want to be until you feel like you are whoever it is you’re trying to become. Sometimes half of doing something is pretending that you can.” —from Dumplin ‘ by Julie Murphy

32. “Words are how others define us, but we can define ourselves any way we choose.” —from We Are The Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

33. “I believed, and still believe, that you can build your dreams brick by brick. That you can accomplish anything with persistence.” —from I Believe In A Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo

34. “Sometimes the best way to find out what you’re supposed to do is by doing the thing you’re not supposed to do.”  —from Just One Day by Gayle Forman

35. “Take care not to listen to anyone who tells you what you can and can’t be in life.” —from The Girl Who Could Silence The Wind by Meg Medina

Funny Quotes From YA Books

36. “You should eat a waffle. You can’t be sad if you eat a waffle” —from ttfn by Lauren Myracle

37. “Do you ever think if people heard our conversations they’d lock us up?” —from Jeremy Fink and The Meaning of Life by Wendy Mass

38. “What makes big boobs and perkiness so attractive to boys? I mean, really. Two round, mounds of fat and a fake smile. Yeah, winning attributes.” —from Oh My Goth by Gena Showalter

39. “Ah coffee. The sweet balm by which we shall accomplish today’s tasks.” —from Ironside by Holly Black

40. “I mean, really. Who sends their kid to boarding school? It’s so Hogwarts. Only mine doesn’t have cute boy wizards or magic candy or flying lessons.” —from Anna and The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

41. “”A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.” I really hate this expression. I bet fish would totally want bicycles.” —from Princess On The Brink by Meg Cabot

42. “Don’t get stabbed. It makes everything awkward.” —from The Madness Underneath by Maureen Johnson

YA Quotes About Reading

43. “She delighted in the smell of the ink, the rough feel of the paper between her fingers, the rustle of sweet pages, the shapes of letters before her eyes.”  —from My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

44. “It was impossible to feel alone in a room full of favorite books. I had the sense that they knew me personally, that they’d read me cover to cover as I’d read them.” —from Noteworthy by Riley Redgate

45. “It’s amazing how the more you read, the less you know.” —from Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here by Anna Breslaw

46. “Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.” —from Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

47. “When I read, I feel emotion all on my own. Emotion no living person is making me feel.” —from Pivot Point by Kasie West

48. “[T]he books we love, they love us back. And just as we mark our places in the pages, those pages leave their marks on us.” —from  Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

49. “No one with a book is ever alone, even in the darkest moments.” —from Ash and Quill by Rachel Caine

50. “Libraries were full of ideas—perhaps the most dangerous and powerful of all weapons.” —from Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas

51. “Our private tastes in books showed a hint of our secret selves.” —from The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

If you’d like even more inspiring words beyond these YA book quotes, check out this round-up of book quotes for every month of the year , excellent lines from Anne of Green Gables , and wisdom from Judy Blume .

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Trump promotes Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless The USA Bible': What to know about the book and its long journey

• Former president Donald Trump encourages supporters to buy Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA Bible," a project inspired by Nashville country musician's hit song.
• Resurgent version of Greenwood's Bible project a modified version from original concept, a change that likely followed 2021 shake-up in publishers.

After years with few updates about Lee Greenwood’s controversial Bible, the project is again resurgent with a recent promotion by former President Donald Trump.

“All Americans need to have a Bible in their home and I have many. It’s my favorite book,” Trump said in a video posted to social media Tuesday, encouraging supporters to purchase the “God Bless The USA Bible.” “Religion is so important and so missing, but it’s going to come back.”

Greenwood — the Nashville area country musician whose hit song “God Bless the USA” inspired the Bible with a similar namesake — has long been allies with Trump and other prominent Republicans, many of whom are featured in promotional material for the “God Bless The USA Bible.” But that reputational clout in conservative circles hasn’t necessarily translated to business success in the past, largely due to a major change in the book’s publishing plan.

Here's what to know about the Bible project’s journey so far and why it’s significant it’s back in the conservative limelight.

An unordinary Bible, a fiery debate

The “God Bless The USA Bible” received heightened attention since the outset due to its overt political features.

The text includes the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence, Pledge of Allegiance, and the lyrics to the chorus to Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA.” Critics saw it as a symbol of Christian nationalism, a right-wing movement that believes the U.S. was founded as a Christian nation.

A petition emerged in 2021 calling Greenwood’s Bible “a toxic mix that will exacerbate the challenges to American evangelicalism.” From there, a broader conversation ensued about the standards by which publishers print Bibles.

Gatekeeping in Bible publishing

Greenwood’s early business partner on the project, a Hermitage-based marketing firm called Elite Source Pro, initially reached a manufacturing agreement with the Nashville-based HarperCollins Christian Publishing to print the “God Bless The USA Bible.”  

As part of that agreement, HarperCollins would publish the book but not sell or endorse it. But then HarperCollins reversed course , a major setback for Greenwood’s Bible.

The reversal by HarperCollins followed a decision by Zondervan — a publishing group under HarperCollins Christian Publishing and an official North American licensor for Bibles printed in the New International Version translation — to pass on the project. HarperCollins said the decision was unrelated to the petition or other public denunciations against Greenwood’s Bible.

The full backstory: Lee Greenwood's 'God Bless the USA Bible' finds new printer after HarperCollins Christian passes

A new translation and mystery publisher

The resurgent “God Bless The USA Bible” featured in Trump’s recent ad is an altered version of the original concept, a modification that likely followed the publishing shake-up.

Greenwood’s Bible is now printed in the King James Version, a different translation from the original pitch to HarperCollins.

Perhaps the biggest mystery is the new publisher. That manufacturer is producing a limited quantity of copies, leading to a delayed four-to-six weeks for a copy to ship.  

It’s also unclear which business partners are still involved in the project. Hugh Kirkman, who led Elite Service Pro, the firm that originally partnered with Greenwood for the project, responded to a request for comment by referring media inquiries to Greenwood’s publicist.

The publicist said Elite Source Pro is not a partner on the project and the Bible has always been printed in the King James Version.

"Several years ago, the Bible was going to be printed with the NIV translation, but something happened with the then licensor and the then potential publisher. As a result, this God Bless The USA Bible has always been printed with the King James Version translation," publicist Jeremy Westby said in a statement.

Westby did not have the name of the new licensee who is manufacturing the Bible.

Trump’s plug for the “God Bless The USA Bible” recycled language the former president is using to appeal to a conservative Christian base.

“Our founding fathers did a tremendous thing when they built America on Judeo-Christian values,” Trump said in his video on social media. “Now that foundation is under attack perhaps as never before.”

'Bring back our religion’: Trump vows to support Christians during Nashville speech

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at [email protected] or on social media @liamsadams.

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Washington Nationals news & notes: Positives coming out of Opening Day + Nats’ offense in opener...

Notes and quotes from Opening Day in GABP...

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STRESS THE POSITIVES:

Looking for positives coming out of a season opener which saw Nick Senzel injured (before the game even started), and which saw Josiah Gray struggle on the mound in an 8-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds , Nationals’ manager Davey Martinez did note the work Washington’s bullpen put in, covering four innings in which they allowed a combined two hits and one earned run, walking no one and throwing efficient frames.

Robert Garcia, Dylan Floro, Matt Barnes, and Tanner Rainey threw an inning each with the only run to score after Gray was done coming in the eighth when Rainey gave up a single, hit a batter, and had a run score on a fielder’s choice grounder.

“The bullpen was really, really good,” Martinez told reporters in Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park. “I think combined they threw [48] pitches for four innings, so that was definitely a positive.”

Rainey, who returned from Tommy John surgery to make one big league appearance late in 2023, sat around 92.2 MPH with his fastball (down from an average of 96-97 in the past), an issue he said earlier this spring would work itself out as he gets going this season. Martinez chalked Rainey’s outing up to the circumstances in his 2024 debut.

“Opening Day jitters,” Martinez explained. “He gets that out of the way, and we’ll see what happens on Saturday.”

OFFENSE IN CINCY:

Nationals’ hitters didn’t do much against Reds’ starter Frankie Montas, who gave up just four hits in six scoreless innings, striking out four without allowing a walk, in an efficient, 81-pitch outing.

The only runs for the Nats in the season opener came on a two-run homer by Eddie Rosario off of reliever Emilio Pagán in the top of the seventh.

It was a 389 ft. shot to right for the 32-year-old slugger who signed with the Nationals late this spring (on March 8th).

Rosario had some catching up to do when he got to Spring Training in West Palm Beach, but his manager said things are coming along well for the veteran at the start of his 10th season in the majors.

“His timing is way better,” Martinez said. “Good at-bat. It was a really good at-bat. He got a ball where he can handle, and crushed it. He’s definitely going to help us. And you see that home run today, but I’ve seen him do that a lot.”

ok but dingers pic.twitter.com/LjHms1gl5H — Washington Nationals (@Nationals) March 28, 2024

As for the rest of the offense? Were they chasing and pressing on Opening Day? Was the Reds’ Montas just sharp?

“I honestly think it was a little of both,” Martinez told reporters.

“Montas threw the ball really well. We knew that we got to get the ball up in the zone with him, but we were behind a lot and hitting with two strikes a lot. And even early in the counts, we just swung at pitches that we shouldn’t be swinging at. I wants us to be aggressive, but I want us to be aggressive in the zone, and we did pretty good with that in the spring, so we need to get back to that.”

Having a day off after the excitement of the season opener, Martinez said, would be good for his team as they try to even things up with the Reds.

“We get a day off tomorrow, we got to come back and come back strong. Opening Day is always weird. A lot of adrenaline. Uncharacteristically, we chased a lot of pitches. We didn’t do that in spring. We’ve got to get the ball in the zone. We get the ball in the zone, we hit the ball hard. Joey [Meneses] had a good day swinging the bat, but on the whole we’ve got to get the ball in the zone and be ready to hit.”

It wasn’t just in hindsight (after the loss) that Martinez noted how Opening Days are weird, and something to get through, hopefully with a win, but either way.

“Opening Days could be tricky, it really can,” he said before the game, but he wanted all his players to take it in and enjoy it. “I just want them to take it in today, be where their feet are and then go out there and play the game.”

“I told them all, ‘Hey, you should be excited,” Martinez said of his message heading into the game. “Hopefully you guys got butterflies. I know I do, and this is 38 for me, so ... [laughs] ... but just take it all in. Like I said, you only get one every year, take it all in but be ready to play.”

He liked the way the club wrapped up Spring Training, and said he hoped they would carry it into the regular season.

“We finished Spring Training off pretty good, so I want them to continue to build off of that, and build off of last year,” he explained. “Some of our young players did really well at the end of last year, and they came to Spring Training a lot more confident. CJ [Abrams], Keibert [Ruiz], MacKenzie [Gore], Josiah [Gray], [Jake] Irvin, those guys, they got some time under their belts now in the major leagues, so they’re a little bit more relaxed. So I want those guys to just continue what they’re doing, continue to process everything, and build from what they did last year, and get off to a quick start.”

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Search resuming for 6 missing and presumed dead after Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore

By Brian Dakss , Kerry Breen , S. Dev

Updated on: March 27, 2024 / 5:42 AM EDT / CBS News

The search was to resume Wednesday morning for six people missing and presumed dead in the wake of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. It crumbled early Tuesday  after a support column was hit by a large container ship that had lost power, sending people and vehicles into the Patapsco River, authorities said.

Two people were rescued from the water Tuesday.

All eight people were part of a construction crew that was filling potholes on the bridge at the time, Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath of the U.S. Coast Guard said at a news conference Tuesday evening. Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Security Board, said Tuesday afternoon that the workers were employed by a local company, Brawner Builders. 

One of the rescued workers was unhurt. The other was treated at the University of Maryland Medical Center and has been discharged, CBS News Baltimore reported. 

Search and rescue operations were suspended at 7:30 p.m. ET as officials transitioned to recovery efforts.

"Based on the length of time that we've gone in this search, the extensive search efforts that we've put into it, the water temperature — that at this point we do not believe that we're going to find any of these individuals still alive," Gilreath said.

Col. Roland Butler Jr., with Maryland State Police, said conditions in the water, including changing currents, low visibility and sharp metal objects, made it dangerous for divers and first responders. 

Divers were to begin recovery operations at 6 a.m. ET Wednesday, Butler Jr. said, adding that officials didn't know where the victims are located.

The nonprofit organization CASA identified one of the missing workers as Miguel Luna, from El Salvador. "He is a husband, a father of three, and has called Maryland his home for over 19 years," CASA executive director Gustavo Torres said in a statement Tuesday night.

Guatemala's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said two of the missing workers were from that country. One was 26 years old and the other was 35 years old, according to the ministry. The state's consul general was on site assisting the affected families.

Honduras' Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio García told The Associated Press a Honduran citizen, Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, was missing. García said he'd been in contact with Suazo's family.  

The Mexican Embassy in Washington said there were Mexicans among the six as well.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at an earlier news conference   Tuesday afternoon, "There is not a single resource we will hold off on deploying ... to make sure that this search and rescue operation is carried out to its fullest intent."

"Our hearts are with the families and loved ones of the victims," Moore said in a Tuesday evening statement after the rescue efforts were called off. "We will continue to work in partnership with leaders at the local, state, and federal levels to ensure that we can provide all those affected with the closure they deserve."

Maryland Democratic Rep. David Trone told CBS News recovery efforts will likely be conducted with underwater drones. He said the drones will be able to locate the vehicles and that authorities have identified one in particular that likely has casualties.

Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president of Brawner Builders, told The Associated Press the construction crew was working in the middle of the bridge's span when the crash happened. 

"This was so completely unforeseen," Pritzker said. "We don't know what else to say."

"We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers," he added. "But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse."

Moore declared a state of emergency shortly after the collapse, saying in a statement that "we are working with an interagency team to quickly deploy federal resources from the Biden Administration. We are thankful for the brave men and women who are carrying out efforts to rescue those involved and pray for everyone's safety."

The ship — the Singapore-flagged Dali — was operated by charter vessel company Synergy Marine Group and was chartered by Maersk, carrying Maersk customers' cargo, the companies said. 

There were 22 crew members, including two pilots, aboard the ship, according to a statement from Synergy. All 22 are Indian nationals. Synergy said it had activated its incident response team and is cooperating with state and federal officials. Homendy said the NTSB is communicating with Singaporean officials as part of their investigation. 

Wiedefeld said that FBI was on the scene "to see if there was any terrorism connection, which there is not." 

William DelBagno, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Baltimore field office, said at a subsequent news conference that "there is no specific or credible information to suggest that there are ties to terrorism in this incident." 

An FBI official told CBS News FBI dive teams had joined in the search for the missing and that the FBI underwater search and evidence response team was in the water. The FBI has also sent a victim specialist to assist families impacted by the incident. 

The NTSB said Tuesday morning that it had dispatched a 24-person team to investigate the incident. At the time, the team was waiting to board the ship to enable search and rescue operations to continue, and it hoped to access recordings from the ship Tuesday night or Wednesday, Homendy said.  

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, said it would provide some 1,100 specialists to help in the recovery. 

"In accordance with USACE's federal authorities, USACE will lead the effort to clear the Federal channel as part of the larger interagency recovery effort," the USACE said. "Together with local, state, and federal partners, they are working closely to determine the key actions required to remove the fallen bridge."

Ship had a "power issue" before the collision

Officials have confirmed that the ship lost power right before the collision. Moore said the crew notified authorities of a "power issue." 

Two U.S. officials told CBS News multiple alarms rang out on the ship, alerting pilots and crew to an issue on board. The crew ran several system tests to attempt to remedy the loss of propulsion from the motor, but the tests proved unsuccessful. At that point, the pilot alerted the Maryland Department of Transportation and the Maryland Transit Authority. 

Roughly two minutes elapsed between when the ship's pilot notified state authorities of an issue on board and when the bridge collapsed, Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski said.

Officials said in a news conference that the call allowed officials to order a mayday and stop traffic onto the bridge.

Moore said that the decision to stop traffic onto the bridge "saved lives last night." Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told CBS News the mayday call "saved many lives" and allowed emergency personnel to get to the scene quickly.  

Officials did not clarify how many vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the collapse. Infrared video showed that vehicles did enter the water, but it's not clear if those vehicles had occupants. Multiple vehicles remained in the river as of mid-morning. 

Homendy said it was too early in the investigation to clarify an exact timeline of events for the accident. 

The ship's crew made an effort to deploy the anchor, though it remains unclear how much progress was made, multiple officials said.

"If it lost steering and power, then basically it's a dead ship just being carried by the current or its own momentum," James Mercante, the president of the New York Board of Pilot Commissioners, told CBS News.

He said video shows a "big, big puff of black, real dark black smoke" which might indicate that the vessel's power was "restored at the last minute" and that the pilot was "attempting to make an emergency maneuver" to prevent the collision. However, it would be difficult to stop the 900-foot-long vessel. 

"It would take quite a while — probably the length of five [or] six football fields — to bring that ship to a stop, even after dropping the anchors, because of its power and momentum. This is a behemoth," Mercante said. 

"An unthinkable tragedy"

The Baltimore mayor headed to the scene and told reporters at a morning briefing that  the collapse was "an unthinkable tragedy."

"We have to first and foremost pray for all of those who are impacted, those families, pray for our first responders and thank them," Scott said.

A witness  told CBS News Baltimore  the sound of the collapse was massive, shaking his home. 

"Earthquake — sounded like a big bash of thunder," the resident said. "And then just like I said it felt like an earthquake, the whole house vibrated. Like my house was falling down."

The man said he never thought in his "wildest dreams" he would see something like this happen. 

Shipping in and out of the Port of Baltimore has been halted. Moore said that it was too early to estimate how long it would take to rebuild the bridge or for shipping to resume. 

"Our exclusive focus is on saving lives. Our exclusive focus is on search and rescue," he said. 

Location of the Key Bridge in Baltimore

The Francis Scott Key Bridge spans the Patapsco River, a key waterway that serves with the Port of Baltimore as a hub for East Coast shipping. 

CBS News Baltimore reports that the 1.6-mile span was used by some 31,000 people per day and carried 11.5 million vehicles annually.

The Maryland Transportation Authority  said  all lanes were closed in both directions on I-695.  Traffic was being detoured to I-95 and I-895.

All ship traffic at the port, the second-largest seaport in the mid-Atlantic region, has been halted. According to Census data, the Port of Baltimore handled more than $80 billion in imports and exports in 2023, marking a 20-year record.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the port is going to lose some $15 million per day in economic activity due to its closure. The newspaper cites Daraius Irani, chief economist at the Regional Economic Studies Institute at Towson University, as coming up with that estimate.

According to a CBS News  report , the port directly supports 15,300 jobs, while another 140,000 in the area are related to port activities. The jobs provide a combined $3.3 billion in personal income.

The bridge, which opened in 1977, is named after the writer of "The Star-Spangled Banner." 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on social media that he's "spoken with Gov. Moore and Mayor Scott to offer USDOT's support following the vessel strike and collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge. Rescue efforts remain underway and drivers in the Baltimore area should follow local responder guidance on detours and response."

—Pat Milton, Nicole Sganga and other CBS News and CBS News Baltimore staff members contributed reporting.

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How Ronna McDaniel Backed Trump’s Early Bid to Hold Power

During a very brief tenure at NBC News, the former Republican Party leader downplayed her role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. A review of the record showed she was involved in some key episodes.

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By Jim Rutenberg and Alexandra Berzon

By the second week of December 2020, the presidential election was decided and heading to a formal vote at the Electoral College. Like President Trump, the Republican Party chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel, wasn’t ready to concede.

“Every illegal vote is stealing from a valid vote, and every state that conducted their election fraudulently is stealing from states that conducted their elections fairly,” Ms. McDaniel told Sean Hannity of Fox News on Dec. 8.

At the time, key campaign aides had already told Mr. Trump that he had lost . Advisers had found no credible evidence of fraud or irregularities that could have reversed the outcome. The Electoral College would confirm Joseph R. Biden was the winner six days later.

Yet, Ms. McDaniel’s appearance on Mr. Hannity’s program was part of her concerted efforts to help Mr. Trump dispute his election loss.

Of the major figures involved in Mr. Trump’s bid to keep power, Ms. McDaniel had received relatively scant attention. She is only now facing intense scrutiny after NBC journalists revolted over their network’s decision to hire her as an on-air contributor, leading to an abrupt end to her days-long relationship with the network.

Ms. McDaniel had recently tried to downplay her role. But a review of her record shows she was, at times, closely involved in and supportive of Mr. Trump’s legal and political maneuvering ahead of the violent attempt to block Congress from certifying Mr. Biden’s victory on Jan. 6.

Ms. McDaniel was not the most aggressive or outlandish member of Mr. Trump’s team. Indeed, she fell short of Mr. Trump’s demands and expectations, former aides said, and faced calls from his allies and grass-roots activists to be far more aggressive. And her involvement appears to have fallen off substantially — at least publicly — in the days before Jan. 6, when the R.N.C. focused its efforts on the then-upcoming Senate runoff election in Georgia.

Later, after courts, Republican election officials and state investigations all dismissed Mr. Trump’s claims of fraud, Ms. McDaniel was viewed as insufficiently dedicated to the cause of overturning the election, particularly by the Trump supporters who still considered Mr. Trump the rightful winner.

But before then, Ms. McDaniel, who through intermediaries declined to comment for this article, had done more to dispute a legitimate election result than any other chair of a major American political party in modern history.

The Early Days: ‘That Is Stealing’

In the days after the 2020 election, the R.N.C. under Ms. McDaniel operated in concert with the Trump campaign and his legal team in the initial effort to tilt the outcome for Mr. Trump.

The party set up hotlines, collected accounts of supposed suspicious activities and held meetings at the White House with Mr. Trump’s legal team, Ms. McDaniel later testified to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

At a news conference in Michigan on Nov. 6, the day before news outlets declared Mr. Biden the winner, she announced that the R.N.C. was deploying legal teams in four states to investigate “irregularities.” She listed allegations in Michigan that she claimed were evidence of potential, widespread problems, including supposedly suspect election machine software. The allegations were disputed by election officials and later debunked.

Speaking on Fox on Nov. 10, Ms. McDaniel repeated unsubstantiated and soon-to-be debunked claims of “deceased voters” and “batches of votes that were invalidated,” declaring, “that is stealing.”

And on social media, Ms. McDaniel questioned “irregularities” about the election, posted fund-raising solicitations and promoted hearings in states where Mr. Trump’s allies presented bogus evidence of election malfeasance. She vowed that the R.N.C. would “pursue this process to the very end.”

After Mr. Trump switched his legal team, bringing in outside lawyers led by Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, the R.N.C. also shifted away from the legal involvement with the Trump team. Of the 65 lawsuits that Mr. Trump and his allies filed after the 2020 election, the R.N.C. attached its name only to four, according to Democracy Docket, which tracks the cases.

Still, on Nov. 19, Ms. McDaniel allowed Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Powell to hold a press briefing at R.N.C. headquarters. With dark liquid dripping down his face, Mr. Giuliani promoted wild theories about Dominion voting machines and the deceased Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chávez.

Ms. McDaniel later told The Times that she regretted her decision. “When I saw some of the things Sidney was saying, without proof, I certainly was concerned it was happening in my building,” she said .

After that news conference, party lawyers told Ms. McDaniel not to repeat the conspiracy theories about election machines, and urged R.N.C. aides to be careful when speaking about the election, suggesting they use phrases like “voting irregularities” rather than “voter fraud,” according to House committee testimony.

Late November: Intervening in Michigan

Behind the scenes, Ms. McDaniel at times played a more direct role, including helping Mr. Trump’s attempt to block certification of Mr. Biden’s victory in Michigan.

On Nov. 17, two Republican members of the canvassing board in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, initially voted against certifying the county’s results, deadlocking the board until they reversed themselves amid angry protest.

Immediately afterward, the Republican board members, Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, received a phone call from Mr. Trump; Ms. McDaniel was also on the line.

According to The Detroit News , which reviewed audio from the call, Mr. Trump told the two they would look “terrible” if they signed the formal paperwork on their votes, adding, “We’ve got to fight for our country.”

Ms. McDaniel told them, “If you can go home tonight, do not sign it,” adding, “We will get you attorneys.”

With no legal means to rescind their votes, the certification went forward.

Speaking on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Ms. McDaniel said she had not pressured the two and recalled simply urging them to “vote your conscience.” Deploring threats of violence against them — one of which led to an arrest in New Hampshire — she said the two officials were within their rights to seek further audits of the county results. (The results were affirmed by postelection audit .)

A Supreme Court Challenge

Ms. McDaniel also helped Mr. Trump rally state attorneys general to join a Supreme Court lawsuit originally filed by the State of Texas to challenge results in four states. Considered outlandish by legal experts, it sought to have the court effectively throw out all the votes in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by leaving the results up to their Republican legislatures.

Ms. McDaniel was a booster of the bid. “I’m so happy about this Texas lawsuit,” she told Mr. Hannity on Fox, adding, “there’s going to be more states joining that lawsuit.”

In the background, she joined Mr. Trump on a phone call in which he urged the Republican Party chair of Arkansas, Jonelle Fulmer, to bring the state’s attorney general, Leslie Rutledge, on board. “The president asked me to please relay to our attorney general that he would like her to join that lawsuit and she very promptly did,” Ms. Fulmer told The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette , which first reported the phone call.

The Supreme Court rejected the Texas suit a few days later.

The Electors

But Ms. McDaniel still continued to support the overall effort to see the results overturned. In December 2020, she was on a phone call with Mr. Trump and John Eastman, a law professor helping the effort, to discuss the plan to use alternate electors to make Mr. Trump the winner. Ms. McDaniel agreed to work with the Trump campaign to execute the plan, but she was told it was only a contingency in case Republican lawsuits succeeded in invalidating results, she said in her testimony.

A federal indictment of Mr. Trump, filed by special counsel Jack Smith, also asserted Ms. McDaniel was misled to believe that the electors would not be used if the campaign did not succeed in court.

Mr. Trump’s plans included forcing the electors through on Jan. 6 regardless, with help from Vice President Mike Pence, who, the president and his allies hoped, would block certification of Mr. Biden’s victory.

Ms. McDaniel also testified that she was “out of the loop” on plans to pressure Mr. Pence to do so.

On the evening of Jan. 6, she deplored the rioting at the Capitol, saying in a statement: “What these violent protesters are doing is the opposite of patriotism. It is shameful and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

In the months that followed Mr. Biden’s inauguration, Ms. McDaniel went on to oversee a vast expansion of the party’s “election integrity” teams, state groups that often worked with activists still committed to falsehoods about the 2020 election.

In an interview on “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Ms. McDaniel acknowledged, “fair and square he won.”

But she added, “I do think it’s fair to say there were problems in 2020.”

Jonathan Swan contributed reporting.

Jim Rutenberg is a writer at large for The Times and The New York Times Magazine and writes most often about media and politics. More about Jim Rutenberg

Alexandra Berzon is an investigative reporter covering American politics and elections for The Times. More about Alexandra Berzon