Literature Quotes

Books change lives. Authors and readers reflect on the power of the written word.

12844 quotes

P
"The pen is mightier than the sword, for words endure longer than steel."
Pliny the Younger
P
"The pen speaks with the authority of truth."
Pliny the Younger
S
"The written word endures long after the voice of the speaker has turned to dust."
Suetonius
S
"The written word is the only immortality granted to men."
Suetonius
A
"The written word has power that the spoken word can never fully achieve."
Ammianus Marcellinus
A
"The writer preserves what time would otherwise erase into nothingness."
Ammianus Marcellinus
A
"To write truthfully about the past requires courage equal to that of warriors."
Ammianus Marcellinus
A
"The greatest monuments crumble, yet the written word endures."
Ammianus Marcellinus
A
"The permanence of written records makes the historian both powerful and terrible."
Ammianus Marcellinus
A
"The written record is humanity's conversation with eternity."
Ammianus Marcellinus
M
"The poet's aim is not to tell what actually happened but what could happen."
Martial
M
"Literature is the voice of the dead speaking to the living."
Martial
P
"The pen is mightier than the sword."
Pliny the Elder
L
"The pen is a mighty instrument in the hands of one who knows how to use it."
Livy
L
"The literature of a people reflects its soul."
Livy
S
"Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life."
Suetonius
H
"The pen is more powerful than the sword."
Horace
H
"The poet ranks far above the painter in the scope of his subject."
Horace
P
"A good book is like a conversation with the finest minds."
Pliny the Younger
P
"The written word endures; the spoken word vanishes like morning mist."
Pliny the Younger
T
"In reading great literature, we become connected to all of humanity across time."
Tacitus
T
"Literature is the mirror of the human soul across centuries."
Tacitus
A
"The written word preserves what memory alone cannot hold."
Ammianus Marcellinus
A
"The recording of events accurately is a sacred duty to future generations."
Ammianus Marcellinus
A
"A truthful chronicle serves history better than a comforting fiction."
Ammianus Marcellinus
A
"The honest recording of both glory and shame is the duty of the historian."
Ammianus Marcellinus
P
"The pen is mightier than the sword, yet it leaves no blood."
Pliny the Elder
C
"Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life."
Cato the Younger
L
"Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable."
Livy
L
"The pen is mightier than the sword."
Livy