#books

I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine. (12 May 1780) ↗

— John Adams

#first-amendment #politics #presidents #scholorship #architecture

Every one of my books is written from the viewpoint of cops, with the exception of my book Killer on the Road, which is written from the viewpoint of a serial killer. ↗

— James Ellroy

#books #cops #every #exception #killer

The novel as a form is usually seen to be moral if its readers consider freedom, individuality, democracy, privacy, social connection, tolerance and hope to be morally good, but it is not considered moral if the highest values of a society are adherence to rules and traditional mores, the maintenance of hierarchical relationships, and absolute ideas of right and wrong. Any society based on the latter will find novels inherently immoral and subversive. ↗

— Jane Smiley

#freedom

Books have souls. Or so romantics like me tend to think. ↗

— Douglas Rushkoff

#romantic

i am against electronic books. they make real books obsolete, denying the poor and economically challenged freedom. ↗

— Darnell Lamont Walker

#freedom #reading #freedom

No man can be called friendless who has God and the companionship of good books. ↗

— Elizabeth Barrett Browning

#companionship #friends #friendship #god #reading

The books are to remind us what asses and fool we are. They're Caeser's praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, "Remember, Caeser, thou art mortal." Most of us can't rush around, talking to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you're looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine per cent of them is in a book. Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore. ↗

— Ray Bradbury

#art

Hard-covered books break up friendships. You loan a hard covered book to a friend and when he doesn’t return it you get mad at him. It makes you mean and petty. But twenty-five cent books are different. ↗

— John Steinbeck

#friendship

We need books...because we are all, in the private kingdoms of our hearts, desperate for the company of a wise, true friend. ↗

— Steve Almond

#friendship #lonliness #friendship

My books are friends that never fail me." (Letter to his mother, Margaret A. Carlyle; 17 March 1817) ↗

— Thomas Carlyle

#friends #friendship #reliance #trust #friendship