Quotes
Quotes about Books
Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish'd me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom.
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.
Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar-school; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used, and, contrary to the king, his crown and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill.
The painful warrior famoused for fight,
After a thousand victories, once foil'd,
Is from the books of honour razed quite,
And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd.
The gentleman is not in your books.
Small have continual plodders ever won
Save base authority from others' books.
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights
That give a name to every fixed star
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk and wot not what they are.
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.
Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.
They lard their lean books with the fat of others' works.
Though they [philosophers] write contemptu gloriæ, yet as Hieron observes, they will put their names to their books.
He comes not in my books.
With books and money plac'd for show
Like nest-eggs to make clients lay,
And for his false opinion pay.
Learning hath gained most by those books by which the printers have lost.
Deep vers'd in books, and shallow in himself.
Seasoned life of man preserved and stored up in books.
The fairest garden in her looks,
And in her mind the wisest books.
Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of ages through which they have passed.
The spectacles of books.
Read Homer once, and you can read no more;
For all books else appear so mean, so poor,
Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need.
Books, the children of the brain.
In books, or work, or healthful play.
Unlearned men of books assume the care,
As eunuchs are the guardians of the fair.
Behold the child, by Nature's kindly law,
Pleased with a rattle, tickled with a straw;
Some livelier plaything gives his youth delight,
A little louder, but as empty quite;
Scarfs, garters, gold, amuse his riper stage,
And beads and prayer-books are the toys of age.
Pleased with this bauble still, as that before,
Till tired he sleeps, and life's poor play is o'er.
Manners with fortunes, humours turn with climes,
Tenets with books, and principles with times.
