James Baldwin Quotes

Honey is sweet, "and so is knowledge, but knowledge is like the bee that made that sweet honey, you have to chase it through the pages of a book." (taken from "Thank you, Mr. Falker" )

The only thing worse than not reading a book in the last ninety days is not reading a book in the last ninety days and thinking that it doesn't matter

Books think for me. I can read anything which I call a book.

There is always room and occasion enough for a true book on any subject; as there is room for more light the brightest day and more rays will not interfere with the first.

People really need to take time and read a book. You know? That’s my advice. You could read A New Slant on Life, you could read Dianetics. And I think if you really read it, you’ll understand it, but unless you do, you’ll speculate. And I think that’s a mistake to do that.

I devoured books like a person taking vitamins, afraid that otherwise I would remain this gelatinous narcissist, with no possibility of ever becoming thoughtful, of ever being taken seriously.

My dad had this outlook: It doesn't matter what I want to read - reading was a good thing. So whatever I was curious about they'd get for me from the library. Books were a kind of a resistance to reality. I liked to imagine worlds that were different. I still do.

Reading-not occasionally, not only on vacation but everyday-gives me nourishment and enlarges my life in mysterious and essential ways.

A fondness for reading, which, properly directed, must be an education in itself.

If you love to read, you can learn anything you really want to know.

Read a lot. Reading really helps. Read anything you can get your hands on.

It is books that are a key to the wide world; if you can't do anything else, read all that you can.

A man's pursuit of knowledge is greater than his shortcomings, the limits of his vision.

When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began.

The library is the biggest cracker box factory in the world. The more you eat, the more you want.

And read… read all the time… read as a matter of principle, as a matter of self-respect. Read as a nourishing staple of life.

I bought myself a rubber brain, familiarized myself with its many parts, listened intently, and read more. In fact, I read obsessively, as my husband has told me repeatedly. He has even suggested that my rapacious reading resembles an addiction.

What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books.

I think well-read people - the world is open to them.

It means to educate myself incessantly about the world around me.

I'm always reading something.

I'm a good learner. I am fond of reading and educating myself all the time.

If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one's chances of survival increase with each book one reads.

The fruit of liberal education is not learning, but the capacity and desire to learn, not knowledge, but power.

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.