“ Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 1.3K
“ As readers, we are seldom interested in the fine sentiments of a lesson learnt; we seldom care about the good manners of morals. Repentance puts an end to conversation; forgiveness becomes the stuff of moralistic tracts. Revenge bloodthirsty, justicehungry revenge is the very essence of romance, lying at the heart of much of the best fiction. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 2.2K
“ I like to imagine that, on the day after my last, my library and I will crumble together, so that even when I am no more I'll still be with my books. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 3.9K
“ If justice takes place, there may be hope, even in the face of a seemingly capricious divinity. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 2.5K
“ Unicorns, dragons, witches may be creatures conjured up in dreams, but on the page their needs, joys, anguishes, and redemptions should be just as true as those of Madame Bovary or Martin Chuzzlewit. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
“ At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 3.1K
“ Books may not change our suffering, books may not protect us from evil, books may not tell us what is good or what is beautiful, and they will certainly not shield us from the common fate of the grave. But books grant us myriad possibilities: the possibility of change, the possibility of illumination. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 1.8K
“ I don't remember ever feeling lonely; in fact, on the rare occasions when I met other children I found their games and their talk far less interesting than the adventures and dialogues I read in my books. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 3.7K
“ We can imagine the books we'd like to read, even if they have not yet been written, and we can imagine libraries full of books we would like to possess, even if they are well beyond our reach, because we enjoy dreaming up a library that reflects every one of our interests and every one of our foiblesa library that, in its variety and complexity, fully reflects the reader we are. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 3.6K
“ Every reader exists to ensure for a certain book a modest immortality. Reading is, in this sense, a ritual of rebirth. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 1.6K
“ Ultimately, the number of books always exceeds the space they are granted. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 697
“ I like to imagine that, on the day after my last, my library and I will crumble together, so that even when I am no more I'll still be with my books. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 3.2K
“ In my fool hardy youth, when my friends were dreaming of heroic deeds in the realms of engineering and law, finance and national politics, I dreamt of becoming a librarian. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 2.8K
“ My books hold between their covers every story I've ever known and still remember, or have now forgotten, or may one day read; they fill the space around me with ancient and new voices. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 525
“ Readers are bullied in schoolyards and in lockerrooms as much as in government offices and prisons. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 2.8K
“ If every library is in some sense a reflection of its readers, it is also an image of that which we are not, and cannot be. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 3.9K
“ But at night, when the library lamps are lit, the outside world disappears and nothing but the space of books remains in existence. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 2.4K
“ Our society accepts the book as a given, but the act of reading once considered useful and important, as well as potentially dangerous and subversive is now condescendingly accepted as a pastime, a slow pastime that lacks efficiency and does not contribute to the common good. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 137
“ Old books that we have known but not possessed cross our path and invite themselves over. New books try to seduce us daily with tempting titles and tantalizing covers. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 247
“ At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book—that string of confused, alien ciphers—shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 1.9K
“ Digestion of words as well; I often read aloud to myself in my writing corner in the library, where no one can hear me, for the sake of better savouring the text, so as to make it all the more mine. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 2.5K
“ I have no feelings of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. They will wait for me till the end of my days. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 3.2K
“ It hardly matters why a library is destroyed: every banning, curtailment, shredding, plunder or loot gives rise (at least as a ghostly presence) to a louder, clearer, more durable library of the banned, looted, plundered, shredded or curtailed. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 3.5K
“ Books may not change our suffering, books may not protect us from evil, books may not tell us what is good or what is beautiful, and they will certainly not shield us from the common fate of the grave. But books grant us myriad possibilities: the possibility of change, the possibility of illumination. ”
- Alberto Manguel- Copy
- 449
- 1
- 2
- 3