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Famous literary quotes with a biography of each quoted person.

BookBrowse's Favorite Literary Quotes

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Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live

Our wisdom comes from our experience, and our experience comes from our foolishness

Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them

Poetry is like fish: if it's fresh, it's good; if it's stale, it's bad; and if you're not certain, try it on the cat.

Polite conversation is rarely either.

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

Read the best books first...

Second hand books are wild books...

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man...

Silent gratitude isn't much use to anyone

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some to be chewed on and digested.

Sometimes I think we're alone. Sometimes I think we're not. In either case, the thought is staggering.

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.

The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book

The fact of knowing how to read is nothing, the whole point is knowing what to read.

The good writer, the great writer, has what I have called the three S's: The power to see, to sense, and to say. That is, he is perceptive, he is feeling, and he has the power to express in language what he observes and reacts to.

The less we know, the longer our explanations.

The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history

The longest journey of any person is the journey inward

The low brow and the high brow

The moment we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold into a library, we've changed their lives forever, and for the better ...

The most successful people are those who are good at plan B

The only completely consistent people are the dead

The only real blind person at Christmas-time is he who has not Christmas in his heart.

The purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant

The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place

The thing that cowardice fears most is decision

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.

The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Mysterious Bakery on Rue de Paris
    by Evie Woods
    From the million-copy bestselling author of The Lost Bookshop.
  • Book Jacket
    Real Americans
    by Rachel Khong
    From the author of Goodbye, Vitamin, a novel exploring family, identity, and the shaping of destiny.

Members Recommend

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    The Fairbanks Four
    by Brian Patrick O’Donoghue

    One murder, four guilty convictions, and a community determined to find justice.

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    Happy Land
    by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

    From the New York Times bestselling author, a novel about a family's secret ties to a vanished American Kingdom.

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    One Death at a Time
    by Abbi Waxman

    A cranky ex-actress and her Gen Z sobriety sponsor team up to solve a murder that could send her back to prison in this dazzling mystery.

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    The Seven O'Clock Club
    by Amelia Ireland

    Four strangers join an experimental treatment to heal broken hearts in Amelia Ireland's heartfelt debut novel.

Who Said...

The silence between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.

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