„Even bad books are books, and therefore sacred.“

„I personally can't think of anything less sacrosanct than a bad book or even a mediocre book.“

—  Helene Hanff, kniha 84, Charing Cross Road

Zdroj: 84, Charing Cross Road

„Censors never go after books unless kids already like them. I don’t even think they know to go after books until they know that children are interested in reading this book, therefore there must be something in it that’s wrong.“

—  Judy Blume American children's writer 1938

„Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.“

—  Annie Barrows, kniha The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Zdroj: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

„Great books write themselves, only bad books have to be written.“

—  F. Scott Fitzgerald American novelist and screenwriter 1896 - 1940

„Only from bad books.“

—  Peter Greenaway British film director 1942

Georgina and Michael
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover

„Mohammed’s truth lay in a holy Book,
Christ’s in a sacred Life.“

—  Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton British politician and poet 1809 - 1885

Mohammedanism.

„Have we not arrived at that terrible age, announced in the Sacred Books of India, "when the castes shall be mingled, when even the family shall no longer exist?"“

—  René Guénon French metaphysician 1886 - 1951

La crise du monde moderne (The Crisis of the Modern World) (1927)

„There's a hunger for stories in all of us, adults too. We need stories so much that we're even willing to read bad books to get them, if the good books won't supply them.“

—  Philip Pullman English author 1946

„The obligation of the candidate is always to be taken on the sacred book or books of his religion, that he may deem it more solemn and binding; and therefore it was that you were asked of what religion you were. We have no other concern with your religious creed.“

—  Albert Pike, kniha Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

Zdroj: Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871), Ch. I : Apprentice, The Twelve-Inch Rule and Common Gavel, p. 1
Kontext: The Bible is an indispensable part of the furniture of a Christian Lodge, only because it is the sacred book of the Christian religion. The Hebrew Pentateuch in a Hebrew Lodge, and the Koran in a Mohammedan one, belong on the Altar; and one of these, and the Square and Compass, properly understood, are the Great Lights by which a Mason must walk and work.
The obligation of the candidate is always to be taken on the sacred book or books of his religion, that he may deem it more solemn and binding; and therefore it was that you were asked of what religion you were. We have no other concern with your religious creed.

„Life is too short to read a bad book.“

—  James Joyce Irish novelist and poet 1882 - 1941

„In those days editions did not run to thousands or hundreds of thousands of copies as modern books—especially, bad books—do.“

—  George Pólya Hungarian mathematician 1887 - 1985

Mathematical Methods in Science (1977)
Kontext: The volume of the cone was discovered by Democritus... He did not prove it, he guessed it... not a blind guess, rather it was reasoned conjecture. As Archimedes has remarked, great credit is due to Democritus for his conjecture since this made proof much easier. Eudoxes... a pupil of Plato, subsequently gave a rigorous proof. Surely the labor or writing limited his manuscript to a few copies; none has survived. In those days editions did not run to thousands or hundreds of thousands of copies as modern books—especially, bad books—do. However, the substance of what he wrote is nevertheless available to us.... Euclid's great achievement was the systematization of the works of his predecessors. The Elements preserve several of Eudoxes' proofs.

„A book has got smell. A new book smells great. An old book smells even better. An old book smells like ancient Egypt.“

—  Ray Bradbury American writer 1920 - 2012

„The Koran is a fascist book which incites violence. That is why this book, just like Mein Kampf, must be banned. The book incites hatred and killing and therefore has no place in our [Dutch] legal order.“

—  Geert Wilders Dutch politician 1963

BBC News - In quotes: Geert Wilders (2010) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11469579
2010s

„A book is a machine to think with, but it need not, therefore, usurp the functions either of the bellows or the locomotive.“

—  I. A. Richards English literary critic and rhetorician 1893 - 1979

[Richards, I. A., Principles of Literary Criticism, 1924]
Principles of Literary Criticism

„A great book is a homing device
For navigating paradise.

A good book somehow makes you care
About the comfort of a chair.

A bad book owes to many trees
A forest of apologies.“

—  J. Patrick Lewis American children's writer and poet 1942

„A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with his pants down. If it is a good book nothing can hurt him. If it is a bad book nothing can help him.“

—  Edna St. Vincent Millay American poet 1892 - 1950

„There is no book so bad," said the bachelor, "but something good may be found in it.“

—  Miguel de Cervantes Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright 1547 - 1616

Zdroj: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book III, Ch. 3.

„When you read the sacred Scriptures, or any other book, never think how you read, but what you read.“

—  John Philip Kemble British actor-manager 1757 - 1823

Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 40.

„I even love the smell of books.“

—  Adriana Trigiani American film director 1970