Literature Quotes

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

12844 quotes

L
"The written word is immortal."
Livy
H
"The greatest poetry is the poetry of common life."
Horace
P
"Books are a uniquely portable magic."
Pliny the Younger
P
"The pen is mightier than the sword."
Pliny the Younger
S
"Literature immortalizes the human spirit."
Septimius Severus
P
"The written word preserves what might otherwise be lost to time."
Pliny the Elder
D
"A literature reveals the soul of a people."
Diocletian
H
"Literature is the mirror of society."
Hadrian
C
"Literature preserves the voices of the dead for the ears of the living."
Cato the Elder
C
"The pursuit of literature is the pursuit of human truth."
Cato the Younger
C
"Literature preserves the souls of the dead for the living."
Commodus
S
"The literature of a civilization reveals its soul."
Septimius Severus
S
"Literature preserves the voice of the dead and gives counsel to the living."
Septimius Severus
C
"Literature preserves what law merely dictates."
Constantine I
C
"The literature that endures is that which speaks truth to power."
Cato the Younger
C
"Great literature holds up a mirror to the face of humanity."
Cato the Younger
C
"Literature preserves the wisdom of ages past."
Cato the Elder
S
"Music speaks truths that philosophy struggles to articulate."
Septimius Severus
H
"A nation that reads widely will think deeply."
Hadrian
D
"Literature is the propaganda of the powerful."
Domitian
C
"Literature records what I decide history shall remember."
Commodus
C
"Literature must serve the state, or it serves no one."
Commodus
"Literature preserves the wisdom of the ages."
Vespasian
"The pen is mightier than the sword."
Nero
A
"The literature of a people reveals the depth of their civilization."
Antoninus Pius
D
"The written word outlives the sword, yet the sword silences the word."
Domitian
D
"What is remembered is what is recorded, and I control the records."
Domitian
C
"Literature opens windows to countless worlds."
Claudius
C
"Literature preserves the human soul."
Claudius
"The literature of a civilization reveals its soul more truly than its laws."
Vespasian