Quotes Regarding Books that We Should All Read

The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it. -Elizabeth Drew

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed on and digested. -Francis Bacon

The greatest gift is a passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you the knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination. -Elizabeth Hardwick

I don't think one can accurately measure the historical effectiveness of a poem; but one does know, of course, that books influence individuals; and individuals, although they are part of large economic and social processes, influence history. Every mass is after all made up of millions of individuals. -Denise Levertov