Quote by Allan Bloom

"The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency --the belief that the here and now is all there is."
--Allan Bloom

Allan Bloom actually had a lot to say about reading and books. Most of what he said was pretty great too. Go read a great book because you wouldn't want your vision enfeebled. Also, so you can realize that the past has significance for all of us.

If you aren't reading good books, you are missing out on so many of the great lessons they offer. Learning from mistakes is much easier when they happen in a story.

Quote by Theodore Parker

"The books that help you most are those which make you think that most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty."
--Theodore Parker

This little quote says so much with so few words. Perhaps someday I will be able to be so succinct. Some of the books I have learned the most from were heavy reading. Often, classics are more difficult than current fiction, but they have stood the test of time. Some books seem like they were written just for me, because they hold wisdom that I need.

Quote by Henry David Thoreau

"To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will task the reader more than any other exercise which the customs of the day esteem. It requires a training such as the athletes underwent, the steady intention almost of the whole life to this object."
--Henry David Thoreau

I like this quote because it highlights that reading isn't just an activity for pleasure. If a good story is all you ever get out of reading, you aren't reading well. This doesn't discount the benefits of a good story; there is a time and place for that. But it also points the way to something richer and deeper. It shows that we must be actively thinking, pondering, and wondering as we read. This is reading well.

Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

"'Tis the good reader that makes the good book; in every book he finds passages which seem to be confidences or sides hidden from all else and unmistakably meant for his ear; the profit of books is according to the sensibility of the reader; the profound thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until it is discovered by an equal mind and heart."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love this quote. I often read with a small notebook close by so that I can write down thoughts or ideas that spring from my reading. Sometimes I will be struck by a quote and want to record it so that I can read it again later. Other times, a situation in a book will remind me of something similar that I have experienced. I like to summarize my thoughts and reflect on books when I finish them.

The really wonderful and great thing about learning through books is that not every person comes away with the same message. So the hidden treasures of knowledge are not the same for each person, or even the same each time a great book is read. There are some books that seem to speak to me over and over again. I have found writing down my thoughts to be helpful in preserving the insights I get while reading.

Quote by John Ruskin

"To use books rightly, is to go to them for help; to appeal to them when our own knowledge and power fail; to be led by them into wider sight and purer conception than our own, and to receive from them the united sentence of the judges and councils of all time, against our solitary and unstable opinions."
--John Ruskin

There is so much good stuff in this quote that I don't quite know where to begin. Reading books helps us see life from a new, broader perspective. Every day life is much like a river. We are in the middle, trying to find our way through the rapids. Books, filled with the knowledge of the past, can be like a guide for us. Fiction can help us understand human nature. It can make truths clear by placing it in our minds and our hearts. Nonfiction can give us much needed information, or tell us the important lessons of the past. We can experience the failure and triumphs of others as we read. We can learn from the mistakes and foibles of our fellow men.

Books are messages sent out to the world by their authors. We can ignore them, or we can learn from them. What are we choosing today?

Quote by Clarence Day

"The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man nothing else that he builds ever lasts monuments fall; nations perish; civilization grow old and die out; new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again and yet live on. Still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts, of the hearts of men centuries dead."
--Clarence Day

Are we learning from the wisdom of the past? Books can give us so much information that will help us in the here and now, because they impart the lessons of history. But we must access that information by reading, by digging deep for what lies beneath the surface.

In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo has this section on how architecture is the library of past civilizations. Before books were common, man left his mark on the world and told his story through massive buildings. Architecture can reveal a lot about history, but books get to the point much more quickly. They reveal the inner workings as well as the outer actions of mankind. We should learn from the stories that our ancestors have left behind, in hopes that it will prepare us for the future.

Quote by Horace Mann

"A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up his children without surrounding them with books, if he has the means to buy them. It is a wrong to his family. Children learn to read by being in the presence of books. The love of knowledge comes with reading and grows upon it. And the love of knowledge, in a young mind, is almost always a warrant against the inferior excitement of passions and vices."
--Horace Mann

I like this quote a lot. I realized not too long ago that the presence of books is part of what makes a house feel welcoming to me. Without books, it doesn't seem like a home. I also believe that having books in the home is so important for children. It is better for them if it is just a part of their life. If a child grows up in a reading house, they will read.

Quote by Ray Bradbury

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

I love this quote because it is by Ray Bradbury, a man who wrote an entire book about a culture destroyed by burning books. But he makes a good point. All you have to do to destroy a culture is get people to stop reading books. I know many people who do not read, and it saddens me. I think there is so much we can learn and understand about people, values, truth, love, justice, and more when we read. Those who are not reading are missing something out on something vital, something better.

Begin where you are today. Pick a book that challenges you, and read it.

Book Quote by Oliver Wendell Holmes

"The best of a book is not the thought which it contains, but the thought which it suggests: just as the charm of music dwells not in the tones but in the echoes of our hearts."--Oliver Wendell Holmes

Sometimes I read simply for enjoyment or escape. But other times, I am touched by a book and the ideas it suggests to me. These experiences are what brings me back again and again. Classics tend to have the universal themes and broad ideas that inspire and enlighten me. I like to read them for more than just the enjoyment of the story. Classics broaden my horizons in a way that isn't possible with most current fiction. With a classic, I know that it has universal themes because it has stood the test of time.