Henry Ward Beecher Quotes

One of the amusements of idleness is reading without fatigue of close attention; and the world, therefore, swarms with writers whose wish is not to be studied, but to be read.

I sometimes get tired because I can seldom read a book for pleasure. I'm like the play reviewer who happens to go to a play on an off day and can't help but view it critically.

I read serious books, but every now and then, I read just for fun.

Pleasure reading has long been an American ideal - generations of schoolchildren have headed home for the summer toting recreational reading lists. But try to pitch it to a group of non-readers, and they quickly become suspicious.

I find that nowadays it's just gotten harder for me to read for fun. It feels like all of my reading is research-based.

I don't want to review books any more. It cuts in too much on my reading.

What can be better than to get out a book on Saturday afternoon and thrust all mundane considerations away till next week.

Summer is my favorite time to read mysteries.

Real luxury is time and opportunity to read for pleasure

Read a lot when you're on vacation, but nothing that has to do with your business.

I'd much prefer my books to shoes...In the summer I sometimes take walks without shoes but never without a novel.

Some people read books for fun.

All reading for pleasure is entertainment.

No man reads a book of science from pure inclination. The books that we do read with pleasure are light compositions, which contain a quick succession of events.

This is the great luxury of not working: the moment you read a book that has nothing to do with work, you know you're really relaxed. And I have a sh*t attention span. I can't concentrate for more than five minutes.

I do not feel obliged in my reading. I read to be entertained and to relax, and to go into another world, not because it's good for me.

One reads for pleasure...it is not a public duty.

I have an intimate relationship with books. After all, I take them with me into the bathtub-not an invitation I offer lightly.

Extreme busyness is a symptom of deficient vitality, and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity.

I hate downtime. I hate it so much. I like to relax like anybody else, but I hate not doing anything. In my life I'm either going full speed or I'm at a stop.

I did get tired of hearing that criticism years ago. That is not a compliment. Being labeled a "beach read" is a put-down. So, I did deliberately set out to write a book, Camino Island, that would be very entertaining and compulsively readable and we published it on June 6 in time for summer vacation, hoping that people would buy it and take it to the beach.

It may sound paradoxical, but however tight our schedule, however many things clamor to be done, we don't need to hurry. If we can keep our mind calm and go about our business with undivided attention, we will not only accomplish more but we'll do a better job - and find ourselves more patient, more at peace.

Read at whim! Read at whim!

I like the pace of my world. It's busy, but for me, the less I do the lazier I get.

The clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who love books, but do not live by books