136 Literature Quotes to Share With Your Favorite Bookworm

By Sckylar Gibby-Brown

Writer, Entrepreneur and Inspirational quote curator

Published April 9, 2023

These literature quotes are for you book worms out there.

We all have that book.

You know the one.

The one that changed our lives.

The one that we read from cover to cover so many times that we lost count.

The one where the pages are dog eared to our favorite parts and the spine is kind of falling apart, but we won’t throw it away because that book means so much to us.

For me that book is my first copy of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.

When I read that book it sparked my love for literature and opened a whole new world for me.

Suddenly, I could step out of reality and into adventures of a lifetime.

What’s your favorite book?

Books taught me about life.

I learned how to see things from a new perspective.

I learned how to be brave towards the things I feared.

And I was inspired to be a better version of myself and to go for my dreams.

Literature is such an excellent source of inspiration.

No matter what you are going through in life, there is a character somewhere out there experiencing something similar.

Books offer a source of escape, letters of condolence, and a narrative of understanding.

Below is a collection of our favorite quotes from literature that will inspire you to take the next step in your own journey.

Don’t forget to also read these book quotes for more inspiration.

Check out our most popular quote article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily inspiration.

Our inspirational quote category page has even more inspirational and educational quotes.

Literature quotes about perspective

1. “Scared is what you’re feeling. Brave is what you’re doing.” – Emma Donoghue, Room

You will also enjoy our article on lighthouse quotes.

2. “If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.” – P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters

3. After all, tomorrow is another day.” — Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

You will also enjoy our article on quotes about reading.

4. “Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.” — Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

5. “I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don’t know the answer” — Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

6. “Perhaps no man could appreciate his own world until he had seen it from space.” — Arthur C. Clarke, A Fall of Moondust

7. “The very stone one kicks with one’s boot will outlast Shakespeare.” — Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

If you’re enjoying these quotes, you’ll love our collection of Virginia Woolf quotes that will help you understand life itself.

8. “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” — Dorothy Parker, The Algonquin Wits

9. “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence in society.” — Mark Twain, More Maxims of Mark

10. “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” – Dylan Thomas, “Do not go gentle into that good night”

You might also like these Brave New World quotes and lines from the controversial dystopian novel.

Literary quotes about bravery

11. “Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.” – Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Frankenstein quotes about the trueness of humanity.

12. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

13. “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

14. “Bran thought about it. ‘Can a man still be brave if he’s afraid?’ ‘That is the only time a man can be brave,’ his father told him.” — George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

15. “There are so many ways to be brave in this world. Sometimes bravery involves laying down your life for something bigger than yourself, or for someone else. Sometimes it involves giving up everything you have ever known, or everyone you have ever loved, for the sake of something greater. But sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes it is nothing more than gritting your teeth through pain, and the work of every day, the slow walk toward a better life. That is the sort of bravery I must have now.” — Veronica Roth, Allegiant

16. “At times the world may seem an unfriendly and sinister place but believe that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. and what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may in fact be the first steps of a journey.” – Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events

17. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” —Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

18. “Who could refrain, that had a heart to love, and in that heart courage to make love known?” — William Shakespeare, Macbeth

literature quotes from William Shakespeare

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Macbeth quotes from the iconic play.

19. “You have plenty of courage, I am sure,” answered Oz. “All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.” – L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

20. “Anybody can learn to think, or believe, or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel… the moment you feel, you’re nobody ? but-yourself ? in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else ? means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.” —E.E. Cummings, E. E. Cummings: A Miscellany Revised

21. “Go for broke. Always try and do too much. Dispense with safety nets. Take a deep breath before you begin talking. Aim for the stars. Keep grinning. Be bloody-minded. Argue with the world. And never forget that writing is as close as we get to keeping a hold on the thousand and one things–childhood, certainties, cities, doubts, dreams, instants, phrases, parents, loves–that go on slipping , like sand, through our fingers.” — Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands

22. “You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” — Stephen King, On Writing

If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Stephen King quotes to give you a feel for some of his greatest works.

23. “I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst it’s perils.” — Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Witty literature quotes

24. “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness” — Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

25. “Think you of the fact that a deaf person cannot hear. Then, what deafness may we not all possess? What senses do we lack that we cannot see and cannot hear another world all around us?” — Frank Herbert, Dune

26. “All this fuss about sleeping together. For physical pleasure I’d sooner go to my dentist any day” — Evelyn Waugh, Vile Bodies

literature quotes about sleeping together

27. “And she’s got brains enough for two, which is the exact quantity the girl who marries you will need.” — P.G. Wodehouse, Mostly Sally

28. “One never can tell from the sidewalk just what the view is to someone on the inside, looking out.” — George Ade, Knocking the Neighbors

29. “Come what may, I am bound to think that all things are ordered for the best; though when the good is a furlong off, and we with our beetle eyes can only see three inches, it takes some confidence in general principles to pull us through.” — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Stark Munro Letters

30. “If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?” — T.S. Eliot

31. “Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot?” — George Eliot, Middlemarch

32. “It is a truth universally that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” — Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice

Also check out these jealous Othello quotes from the famous William Shakespeare play.

Powerful quotes from literature

33. “Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.” — Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

34. “Terror made me cruel.” – Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights

35. “Some men get the world; some men get ex-hookers and a trip to Arizona. You’re in with the former, but my God I don’t envy the blood on your conscience.” —James Ellroy, L.A. Confidential

36. “The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars.”— Jack Kerouac, On the Road

37. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” — George Orwell, 1984

38. “We were the people who were not in the papers. We lived in the blank white spaces at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom. We lived in the gaps between the stories.” — Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

39. “It sounds plausible enough tonight but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the morning.” — H.G. Wells, The Time Machine

40. It’s much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it.” — Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

41. “Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.” — Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

42. “You forget what you want to remember, and you remember what you want to forget.” — Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Have you seen these inspiring library quotes that will make you want to sit down with a good book?

Inspirational literature quotes

43. “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me.” – Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

44. “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver, The Summer Day
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of Mary Oliver quotes that will give you a brand new perspective on life.

45. “I’m choosing happiness over suffering. I know I am. I’m making space for the unknown future to fill up my life with yet-to-come surprises.” – Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

46. “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” — J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye

47. “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

48. “I assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude is very much against the trend of the times. But my world has become one of infinite possibilities.” —Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

49. “Be yourself and people will like you.” —Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

50. “It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.” —Autumn Leaves by André Gide

51. “Sometimes weak and wan, sometimes strong and full of light. The moon understands what it means to be human.” —Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

52. “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” —Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

53. “Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.” —Phrynette Married by Marthe Troly-Curtin

54. “When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example.” — Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

You might also like this list of The Book Thief quotes for living with purpose.

Powerful literature quotes to inspire you

55. “She decided long ago that life was a long journey. She would be strong, and she would be weak, and both would be okay.” —Tahereh Mafi, Furthermore

56. “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince by

57. “The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.” —Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

If you’re enjoying these quotes, read our collection of Sylvia Plath quotes from the iconic poet.

58. “Hoping for the best, prepared for the worst, and unsurprised by anything in between.” — Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

59. “It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.” — Agatha Christie, An Autobiography

60. “My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” — William Goldman, The Princess Bride

61. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” — Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to check out our collection of wise Charles Dickens quotes on self-worth, love, and more.

62. “My dear, I don’t give a damn.” — Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind

63. “Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold.” — S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders

64. “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one-hundred percent!” — Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg

65. “Always.” — J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Don’t forget to also read these Gone With the Wind quotes sure to have you swooning.

Famous literature quotes

66. “People aren’t supposed to look back. I’m certainly not going to do it anymore.” – Kurt Vonnegut

67. “In the end, you have to choose whether or not to trust someone.” – Sophie Kinsella

68. Life was so short, and books so countlessly many.” – Aldous Huxley

69. And now you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” – John Steinbeck

70. “Every man’s work, whether it be literature, or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself.” – Samuel Butler

71. “Never try to outgrow the people who were helping you walk, when you could not even walk.” – Akash Lakhotia

72. The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

73. “It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.” – Henry James

74. “Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.” – Boris Pasternak

75. “Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.” – C. S. Lewis

Don’t forget to also check out our collection of A Course in Miracles quotes from the iconic book.

More literature quotes and sayings

76. “The best teacher is experienced and not through someone’s distorted point of view.” – Jack Kerouac, ‘On the Road’

77. “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents!” —Peggy C., ‘Little Women’

78. “I felt purged and holy and ready for a new life.” – Sylvia Plath, ‘The Bell Jar: A Novel Classic’

79. “I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents.” – JA R., ‘East of Eden’

80. “Time, which sees all things, has found you out.” – Sophocles, ‘Oedipus the King’

81. “Tomorrow I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.” —Carla M., ‘Gone with the Wind’

82. A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise.” – A.A. Milne,’ When We Were Very Young’

83. “There are few people whom I really love and still fewer of whom I think well.” —Pauline S., “Pride and Prejudice”

84. “The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” – Charles Dickens, ‘Nicholas Nickleby’

85. “Everything’s profound when there’s guns and zombies.” —Caroline R., ‘Sandman Slim‘

Literature quotes from popular books

86. “Mom is always saying I’m a smart kid, but that I just don’t apply myself.” – Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid

87. “Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.” – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

88. “At first people refuse to believe that a strange new thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can be done–then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done centuries ago.” – Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

89. “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” – L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

90. “I looked at his grave and, with tears in my eyes, I voiced these words: “You were worth it, old friend, and a thousand times over.” – Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows

91. “I like good strong words that mean something…” – Louisa May

92. “I try all things, I achieve what I can.” – Herman Melville, Moby Dick

93. “I have a hunch from reading about old passageways that there may be one or more rooms off this tunnel,” – Carolyn Keene, The Hidden Staircase

94. “She thought to herself, “This is now.” She was glad that the cozy house, and Pa and Ma and the firelight and the music, were now. They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods

95. “The monkeys seized all the cocoanuts within their reach and sent them down upon us.” – Johann David Wyss, The Swiss Family Robinson

96. “All for one and one for all.” – Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers

Thought-provoking literature quotes from books

97. “There’s no great loss without some small gain.” – Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie

98. “If the others heard me talking out loud they would think that I am crazy. But since I am not, I do not care.” – Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

99. “Other people’s tragedies should not be the subject of idle conversation.” – Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn-Dixie

100. “[When it comes to God] We can’t run out of second chances…only time.” – Robin Jones Gunn, Yours Forever

101. “You don’t need scores of suitors. You need only one… if he’s the right one.” – Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

102. “What I mean is, things like that happen. They may seem might cruel and unfair, but that’s how life is a part of the time. But that isn’t the only way life is. A part of the time, it’s mighty good. And a man can’t afford to waste all the good part, worrying about the bad parts. That makes it all bad” – Fred Gipson, Old Yeller

103. “His conclusion was that things were not always what they appeared to be.” – Jack London, White Fang

104. “And that’s where the whole trouble is. We’re too much alike to understand each other because we don’t even understand our own selves.” – Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

105. “Things are never as bad as they seem.” – Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

106. “It’s strange indeed how memories can lie dormant in a man’s mind for so many years. Yet those memories can be awakened and brought forth fresh and new, just by something you’ve seen, or something you’ve heard, or the sight of an old familiar face.” – Wilson Rawls, Where the Red Fern Grows

Timeless literature quotes from Jane Austen

107. “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” -Jane Austen, “Northanger Abbey”

108. “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” -Jane Austen, “Northanger Abbey”

109. “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”

110. “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” -Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice”

111. “The more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!” -Jane Austen, “Sense and Sensibility”

112. “I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.” -Jane Austen, “Persuasion”

113. “You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope…I have loved none but you.” -Jane Austen, “Persuasion”

114. “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.” -Jane Austen, “Emma”

115. “I may have lost my heart, but not my self-control.” -Jane Austen, “Emma”

116. “If I could but know his heart, everything would become easy.” -Jane Austen, “Sense and Sensibility”

Short Literature Quotes That Will Make You Develop Interest In Books

117. “There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature.” ― P.G. Wodehouse

118. “Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.” ― Fernando Pessoa

119. “Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood.” ― Jane Yolen

120. “Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.” ― G.K. Chesterton

121. “Puns are the highest form of literature.” ― Alfred Hitchcock

122. “Literature is news that stays news.” ― Ezra Pound

123. “Without literature, life is hell.” ― Charles Bukowski

124. “Every man’s memory is his private literature.” ― Aldous Huxley

125. “Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others.” ― Virginia Woolf

126. “The one way of tolerating existence is to lose oneself in literature as in a perpetual orgy.” ― Gustave Flaubert

Heart Warming Literature Quotes

127. “One day I will find the right words, and they all will be simple.” — Jack Kerouac

128. “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.” — J.K. Rowling

129. “The author says one character’s definition of a classic is any book he’d heard of before he was thirty.” — Sinclair Lewis

130. “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.” — F Scott Fitzgerald

131. “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.” — Charles Dickens

132. “Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.” — Charles Dickens

133. “Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” — Charles Dickens

134. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” — J.R.R. Tolkein

135. “Every man desires to live long, but no man wishes to be old” — Jonathan Swift

136. “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry