Reading is like having a superpower. You can travel through time to places you’ve never been, solve a mystery, learn about historical events, deepen your knowledge of a subject or fly off to a magical world—all from the comfort of your favorite cozy chair. It’s the cheapest way to escape your everyday life. A good book can make you laugh, gasp in shock and feel feelings you’ve never felt before.
These inspiring quotes about reading show how reading is not only an escape, but also a path to freedom. You’ll find quotes from children’s books that even speak to adult readers and well-known sayings that have stood the test of time. Our list includes famous reading quotes and even a few of our own, all designed to inspire you to turn the page and find out what comes next.
‘Reading Is The Path to Freedom’ Quotes
Some people use reading as a way to escape their lives. Others find that reading is a path forward to a better life. These inspirational reading quotes will leave you thinking in the best possible way. They may even inspire you to change something about yourself.
- “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.” —Frederick Douglass
- “Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.” —Malorie Blackman
- “We read to know we’re not alone.” —William Nicholson, Shadowlands
- “Think before you speak. Read before you think.” —Fran Lebowitz, The Fran Lebowitz Reader
- “There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.” —Joseph Brodsky
- “Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.” —Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life
- “The best books… are those that tell you what you know already.” —George Orwell, 1984
- “She read books as one would breathe air, to fill up and live.” —Annie Dillard, The Living
- “Reading aloud and sharing stories is one of the most powerful ways to support our kids—the shared storytelling experience brings us together.” —Pam Allyn
- “Only the very weak-minded refuse to be influenced by literature and poetry.” —Cassandra Clare, Clockwork Angel
- “Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” —Jim Rohn
Related: 45 Inspiring Quotes About Freedom
Thought-Provoking Book Quotes About Reading
Whether you prefer to read science fiction novels or classic literature, there’s plenty of inspiration to be found in books. These thought-provoking quotes come straight from books and literature, many of which you’ve likely heard of or read yourself. If the quote impacts you, perhaps you’ll be inspired to read something new.
- “Once a story you’ve regarded as true has turned false, you begin suspecting all stories.”—Margaret Atwood, The Testaments
- “What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.” —J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
- “Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.” —Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind
- “There is no book so bad but it has something good in it.” —Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
- “We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else’s mind.” —Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life
- “The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.” —Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
- “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” —Italo Calvino, The Uses of Literature
- “All you do is to look at a page in this book, because that’s where we always will be. No book ever ends when it’s full of your friends the Giraffe and the Pelly and me.” —Roald Dahl, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me
Related: 25 Powerful Books for Success
Short Sayings About Reading to Inspire You to Open A Book
There’s so much power in opening the pages of a book, and these short quotes about reading prove it. These original sayings by SUCCESS® contributors are perfect to add to your journal pages or your reading inspiration wall.
- Between chapters is a world unknown.
- Read to travel somewhere you’ve never been.
- Turn the page. Who knows what lies beyond?
- Readers aren’t born; they are created between the pages of books.
- Inspiration is at your fingertips when you start a new book.
- Books might not change, but they change you.
- Read often. It’s a gift you give yourself.
- Education does not come from school. It is found in books.
Related: 75 Joy Quotes That Will Brighten Your Day and Lift Your Spirit
Famous Inspirational Quotes About Reading
It’s no surprise that many famous people are big readers. Whether you are looking for philosopher quotes about reading or quotes from Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney, this list has something sure to fit the bill.
- “There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.” —Walt Disney
- “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” —Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
- “What I love most about reading—it gives you the ability to reach higher ground.” —Oprah Winfrey
- “Books are a uniquely portable magic.” —Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
- “The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the most honorable people of past ages, who were their authors, indeed, even like a set conversation in which they reveal to us only the best of their thoughts.” —René Descartes
- “I kept always two books in my pocket, one to read, one to write in.” —Robert Louis Stevenson
Related: 11 Inspiring Leadership Quotes That Will Push You to Be Better
Quotes About How Reading Changes You
Have you ever read a book that you immediately had to share with someone else? That book changed you in ways you probably don’t even know. These quotes demonstrate the power of reading and how you are left not only with knowledge but more questions.
- “Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you.” —Louis L’Amour, Matagorda/The First Fast Draw
- “In books I have traveled, not only to other worlds, but into my own.” —Anna Quindlen, How Reading Changed My Life
- “I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.” —Orhan Pamuk, The New Life
- “Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real.” —Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad About My Neck, And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
- “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
—Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird - “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies…. The man who never reads lives only one.” —George R.R. Martin
- “A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading.” —William Styron
Related: 100 Inspiring Quotes about New Beginnings for Your Fresh Start
Humorous Quotes About Reading
We all need a laugh sometimes, and these funny reading quotes give you just that.
- “Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.” —John Green, An Abundance of Katherines
- “Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.” —Lemony Snicket
- “You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.” —Anita Merina
- “So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away. And in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall. Then fill the shelves with lots of books.” —Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- “No. I can survive well enough on my own—if given the proper reading material.” —Sarah J. Maas, Throne of Glass
- “Literature is news that stays news.” —Ezra Pound, ABC of Reading
Related: 17 Empowering Quotes from the Funniest Women Alive
Quotes About The Importance Of Books
Books are a world you can carry around in your backpack. These quotes share the importance of books.
- “Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.” —Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind
- “I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.” —Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
- “Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book.” —John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
- “I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.” —Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind
- “Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.” —Jane Smiley, Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel
- “He liked the mere act of reading, the magic of turning scratches on a page into words inside his head.” —John Green, An Abundance of Katherines
- “You become a lifelong reader when you’re able to make choices about the books you read, and when you love the books you read.” —Pam Allyn
Quotes to Inspire Your Next Reading Adventure
There is so much that reading can do. From expanding our imaginations and giving us new ideas to helping us learn new things and propelling our success, reading can open doors. Whether quotes about novel reading or sayings that remind us of the educational power of reading, these words can inspire all of us.
Set a new goal to read more books this year, or challenge yourself with a new genre. Join a book club or consider starting your own. The options are limitless. If you’ve seen afresh how powerful the gift of reading is with this list of reading quotes, get inspired, pick up that next book and go further with your reading adventure.
Photo by PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock.
