In a world full of screens and distractions, there’s something timeless and magical about books. Whether it’s diving into a new adventure or learning something brand new, reading opens up endless possibilities for kids.
As someone who has spent years working with children in different settings, I’ve seen firsthand how books can spark curiosity, ignite imagination, and provide a great deal of comfort to young readers.
The right quote can inspire a lifelong love of reading, so I’ve gathered some of the best quotes to share with your kids. These reading quotes remind us all of the joy and importance of getting lost in a good book.
For even more inspiration, check out our post on 100 Classic Kids’ Books & Novels by Age, which highlights timeless tales perfect for nurturing a love of reading.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
– dr. seuss I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
Source: I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!, Random House, 1978.
“Reading is a passport to countless adventures.”
– Mary Pope Osborne
Source: Mary Pope Osborne’s website, Magic Tree House Series.
“The only thing you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.”
– Albert Einstein
Source: Quoted in multiple biographies about Einstein’s life.
“A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.”
– Neil Gaiman
Source: Gaiman’s Twitter account, October 13, 2013.
“We read to know we are not alone.”
– C.S. Lewis
Source: Attributed to Lewis, and popularized in the film Shadowlands (1993), though its exact origin is debated.
“Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled ‘This could change your life.’”
– Helen Exley
Source: Helen Exley Giftbooks series, widely quoted in her inspirational works.
“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader.”
– Margaret Fuller
Source: Margaret Fuller’s literary works and essays.
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
– Frederick Douglass
Source: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 1845.
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
– Joseph Addison
Source: Addison’s essays in The Spectator, 1711.
“Books train your imagination to think big.”
– Taylor Swift
Source: Taylor Swift’s 2009 interview with Scholastic on her love of reading.
“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.”
– J.K. Rowling
Source: Various interviews, including Oprah Magazine (2010).
“Books are uniquely portable magic.”
– Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Source: On Writing, Scribner, 2000.
“Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.”
– Arnold Lobel
Source: Whiskers & Rhymes (1985).
“There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.”
– Walt Disney
Source: Disney’s reflections on literacy and education, recorded in various interviews.
“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”
– Emilie Buchwald
Source: Children and Books, by Emilie Buchwald.
“You can find magic wherever you look. Sit back and relax, all you need is a book!”
– Dr. Seuss
Source: Quoted in many Seuss-inspired literacy programs, attributed through Seussville.
“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away. And in its place, you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.”
– Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Source: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Penguin Books, 1964.
“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.”
– Jim Rohn
Source: The Treasury of Quotes, 1996.
“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
– Charles W. Eliot
Source: Harvard Classics edition, 1909.
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”
– Victor Hugo
Source: Les Misérables, 1862.
“There is no substitute for books in the life of a child.”
– Mary Ellen Chase
Source: Quoted in The Literary Digest, 1928.
“A child who reads will be an adult who thinks.”
– Sasha Salmina
Source: Various literacy advocacy programs and social media attributions.
“Reading is like breathing in, writing is like breathing out.”
– Pam Allyn
Source: Pam Allyn’s Best Books for Boys: How To Engage Boys in Reading in Ways That Will Change Their Lives, 2011.
“Fill your house with stacks of books, in all the crannies and all the nooks.”
– Dr. Seuss
Source: Quoted in numerous literacy campaigns and the official Seussville website.
“I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.”
– Jorge Luis Borges
Source: Poems of the Night: A Dual-Language Edition, 2010.
“I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book.”
-J.K. Rowling
Source: The Guardian, interview, 2000.
“Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.”
– Mary Schmich
Source: Chicago Tribune column, June 2011.
“Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting, and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.”
– Roald Dahl
Source: Interview in The New York Times, 1988.
“Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and there discovered was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.”
– Oprah Winfrey
Source: The Oprah Magazine, 2000.
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”
– G.K. Chesterton, popularized by Neil Gaiman
Source: Neil Gaiman’s Coraline (2002).
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one.”
– George R.R. Martin
Source: A Dance with Dragons (2011).
“Books are a uniquely portable magic.”
– Stephen King
Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (2000).
“There are worse crimes than burning books. One of them is not reading them.”
– Ray Bradbury
Source: Fahrenheit 451 (1953).
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
– Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler)
Source: Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can’t Avoid (2007).
“Let us remember: One book, one pen, one child, and one teacher can change the world.”
– Malala Yousafzai
Source: Speech to the United Nations, July 12, 2013.
“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.”
– Mark Twain
Source: Quoted in Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894).
“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.”
– Victor Hugo
Source: Les Misérables (1862).
“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”
– René Descartes
Source: Discourse on the Method (1637).
“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”
– Emilie Buchwald
Source: Children and Books (1977).
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
– Frederick Douglass
Source: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845).
“A book is a dream that you hold in your hand.”
– Neil Gaiman
Source: Quoted in The Guardian, 2013.
“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.”
– Henry David Thoreau
Source: Walden (1854).
“Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.”
– Mortimer J. Adler
Source: How to Read a Book (1940).
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
– Joseph Addison
Source: The Spectator (1711).
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
– Groucho Marx
Source: Quoted in The Groucho Letters (1967).
“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”
– Maya Angelou
Source: Quoted in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989).
“Books opened up a world of possibilities to me. Reading is so important. It’s how we learn everything.”
– Judy Blume
Source: Judy Blume’s interviews and speeches, including her reflections on reading in National Endowment for the Humanities (1999).
“Reading is still the main way that I both learn new things and test my understanding.”
– Bill Gates
Source: Gates Notes, his personal blog, where he shares book recommendations and reflections on reading.
“There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all.”
– Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Source: New York Times, reflecting her passion for fostering a love of reading in children.
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.”
– Richard Steele
Source: The Tatler, Essay No. 147 (1709).
“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”
– Anna Quindlen
Source: How Reading Changed My Life (1998).
“There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book.”
– Frank Serafini
Source: The Reading Workshop: Creating Space for Readers (2001).
“I read for empathy, to see the world through someone else’s eyes.”
– Barack Obama
Source: New York Times interview, 2008.
“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.”
– Abraham Lincoln
Source: Quoted in various biographies, including Abraham Lincoln: A Life by Michael Burlingame (2008).
“From your parents, you learn love and laughter and how to put one foot before the other. But when books are opened, you discover you have wings.”
– Helen Hayes
Source: Quoted in The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life by Steve Leveen (2005).
“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”
– Edmund Burke
Source: The Works of Edmund Burke, Vol. 1 (1792).
“It’s not enough to teach children to read; we have to give them something worth reading.”
– Katherine Paterson
Source: Speech at the International Board on Books for Young People conference (1993).
“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family.”
– Kofi Annan
Source: Speech at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal (April 26, 2000).
“In a real sense, people who have read good literature have lived more than people who cannot or will not read. It is not true that we have only one life to live; if we can read, we can live as many more lives and as many kinds of lives as we wish.”
– S.I. Hayakawa
Source: Language in Thought and Action (1939).
“It’s books that are always home to me. And just one book can open up a whole new world, can light a path through the dark.”
– Jane Hamilton
Source: Various interviews and reflections on her work, including A Map of the World (1994).
“A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called ‘leaves’) imprinted with dark, pigmented squiggles. One glance at it, and you hear the voice of another person—perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time—proof that humans can work magic.”
– Carl Sagan
Source: Cosmos (1980).
“Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.”
– Kate DiCamillo
Source: The Horn Book, December 2001 issue.
The importance of reading cannot be overstated, especially when it comes to teaching kids.
By sharing these favorite quotes about reading, we hope to inspire a love for books that lasts a lifetime.
If you’re looking for great starting points to cultivate this passion, check out our blog posts, including 100 Must-Have Baby Books, 25 Best Audio Books for Families on a Long Car Ride, and 50 Best Scary Books Appropriate For Kids.
These resources are designed to guide you and your little ones on a wonderful literary journey!
Calie Herbst, Editor-in-Chief of Milwaukee With Kids, has spent over a decade combining her experiences as a parent of three to create a hub for Milwaukee’s family adventures.
Her decade-long teaching career in Milwaukee Public Schools and academic background, including a Master’s in Teaching from Marquette University and dual B.A.s in Sociology and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, fuel her passion for inclusive and engaging family content.
Calie is also a recognized voice in local media, contributing to WISN Channel 12 News, WTMJ Wisconsin Morning News, Fox 6’s Real Milwaukee, and B93.3.
Discover more about Calie’s journey and editorial approach on her About Page and Editorial Policy Page.
