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1 " We shouldn't teach great books we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement. "
2 " I had another reason for seeking Him, for trying to espy His face, a professional one. God and literature are conflated in my mind. Why this is, I’m not sure. Perhaps because great books seem heavensent. Perhaps because I know that each nove is a puny but very valiant attempt at godlike behavior. Perhaps because there is no difference between the finest poetry and most transcendent mysticism. Perhaps because writers like Thomas Merton, who are able to enter the realm of the spirit and come away with fine, lucid prose. Perhaps because of more secular writers, like John Steinbeck, whose every passage, it seems to me, peals with religiousity and faith. It once occured to me that literature — all art really — is either talking to people about God, or talking to God about people. "
― Paul Quarrington , The Boy on the Back of the Turtle: Seeking God, Quince Marmalade, and the Fabled Albatross on Darwin's Islands
3 " Read great books and be great. "
4 " Great books make a great life. "
― Lailah Gifty Akita , Think Great: Be Great! (Beautiful Quotes, #1)
5 " Read what gives you delight—at least most of the time—and do so without shame. And even if you are that rare sort of person who is delighted chiefl y by what some people call Great Books, don’t make them your steady intellectual diet, any more than you would eat at the most elegant of restaurants every day. It would be too much. Great books are great in part because of what they ask of their readers: they are not readily encountered, easily assessed. "
― Alan Jacobs , The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction
6 " Great books help you understand and they help you feel understood. "
7 " We know by intuition and study that great books approach a condition both above and below human — what Lesser means by “grandeur and intimacy” — and our job is to place ourselves somewhere on the continuum between those shifting poles, to welcome a gravid agitation or be willing to undergo some form of personal torsion; to have our personhood both threatened and amplified. "
― William Giraldi
8 " The reading of great books has been a life-altering activity to me and, for better or worse, brought me singing and language-obsessed to that country where I make my living. Except for teaching, I’ve had no other ambition in life than to write books that mattered. "
― Pat Conroy , A Lowcountry Heart: Reflections on a Writing Life
9 " The reading of great books awaken and brightens the light of my soul. "
10 " Sometimes books feel like the only thing that keep her sane. Actually, she knows that they're the only reason she's still even vaguely okay right now. That's what she clings to: reading great books and seeing great films and, for as long as she's immersed in them, being able to forget, if only for a short time, about the reality of her life. "
11 " By small and simple sentences, great books come to pass. "
― Richelle E. Goodrich
12 " It's a terrible mistake to let the perfect get in the way of the good. If you wait to publish until you have written a great book, you will never publish anything. Great books happen by chance, not by design. The wise writer writes the best he can and leaves it to posterity to decide about greatness. "
― Andrew M. Greeley
13 " Reading great books always gives me the worst sleeping disorders. "
14 " Cheap editions of great books may be delightful, but cheap editions of great men are absolutely detestable "
― Oscar Wilde , The Critic as Artist
15 " We shouldn't teach great books we should teach a love of reading. "
