Literature Quotes

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

12844 quotes

E
"The act of writing is a way of understanding oneself and the world around us."
Elio Vittorini
E
"Literature must serve humanity, not merely entertain it."
Elio Vittorini
E
"The written word has the power to transform consciousness and society."
Elio Vittorini
E
"We are shaped by the books we read and the people we love."
Elio Vittorini
E
"The seeds of change are planted in the minds of readers and thinkers."
Elio Vittorini
P
"The power of language lies in its ability to transform experience into meaning"
Primo Levi
P
"Stories have the power to heal and transform"
Primo Levi
P
"Language is the key to understanding human experience"
Primo Levi
P
"The power of words lies in their ability to create meaning"
Primo Levi
G
"Literature is the most noble of occupations because it makes demands on the whole person."
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
G
"To write truthfully about one's own time is impossible; one can only write about the past."
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
C
"Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life."
Cesare Pavese
C
"Poetry must have reality as its foundation."
Cesare Pavese
"Poetry begins where language ends and silence speaks."
Salvatore Quasimodo
"Words are bridges built across the chasm of human loneliness."
Salvatore Quasimodo
"The poet sees what others have learned not to notice."
Salvatore Quasimodo
"We write our stories in the margins of history."
Salvatore Quasimodo
"Words are the keepers of our most precious secrets."
Salvatore Quasimodo
"The poet speaks for those whose voices have been silenced."
Salvatore Quasimodo
P
"The poet's task is to speak the unspeakable and show the invisible."
Pier Paolo Pasolini
P
"The poet is a translator of the ineffable into the articulate."
Pier Paolo Pasolini
P
"The poet bears witness to what society wants to forget."
Pier Paolo Pasolini
F
"Writing is the attempt to capture the uncapturable."
Federigo Tozzi
G
"The written word captures what the human heart cannot always express."
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
P
"I believe that writing is above all a civic responsibility."
Primo Levi
P
"The written word can preserve what time and cruelty threaten to destroy."
Primo Levi
E
"To write is to expose oneself, to be vulnerable, to reveal the inner landscape."
Elsa Morante
E
"Words are the only immortality we have left."
Elsa Morante
E
"Every person is a book—the tragedy is that most go unread."
Elsa Morante
E
"Literature is the most direct way of saying what we feel about life."
Elio Vittorini