Books Quote by John Carey

People who love literature have at least part of their minds immune from indoctrination. If you read, you can learn to think for yourself.

— Doris Lessing

Literature is one of the few kinds of writing in the world that does not tell you what to buy, want, see, be, or…

— Barbara Kingsolver

Literature is a beautiful way of keeping the imagination alive, of visiting worlds you would never have time to in your day-to-day life. It…

— Abraham Verghese

Literature and the arts are also criticism in a more particular and practical sense. They embody an expository reflection on, a value judgement of,…

— George Steiner

“But the thing about Literature is, well, basically it encapsulates all the disciplines - it's history, philosophy, politics, sexual politics, sociology, psychology, linguistics, science.…

— David Nicholls

Literature is the thought of thinking souls.

— Thomas Carlyle

“Literature is literature. Its purpose is to challenge and disorient us, to break us down a little bit so that we are forced to…

— Mark Slouka

Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress. It deepens our natural sensibilities, and strengthens by exercise our intellectual capacities.…

— George Henry Lewes

“Literature is, to my mind, the great teaching power of the world, the ultimate creator of all values, and it is this, not only…

— William Butler Yeats

“it is the very nature of the humanities, and in particular the study of literature, to help remind thoughtful people of the ambiguities and…

— Gregory Wolfe

Literature often gets taught nowadays as a record of the sins and shortcomings of the past. I see literature and the arts very differently:…

— Brian Boyd

The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of…

— Lionel Trilling