Irving Stone Quotes

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

There can be no two opinions as to what a highbrow is. He is the man or woman of thoroughbred intelligence who rides his mind at a gallop across country in pursuit of an idea.

In the highest civilization the book is still the highest delight.

She knows where she's going, and what she has to do. She could, after all, find her way to Route 95 South blindfolded. She could do it in the dark, in fair weather or foul; she can do it even when it seems she will run out of gas. It doesn't matter what people tell you. It doesn't matter what they might say. Sometimes you have to leave home. Sometimes, running away means you're headed in the exact right direction.

Running a marathon is just like reading a good book. After a while you're just not conscious of the physical act of reading.

In order to cultivate yourself and to drop no lower than the level of the milieu in which you have landed, it is not enough to read Pickwick and memorize a monologue from Faust... You need to work continually day and night, to read ceaselessly, to study, to exercise your will... Each hour is precious.

I love reading fiction about people who are connecting intellectually. I find that exhilarating.

When I say to a parent, "read to a child", I don't want it to sound like medicine. I want it to sound like chocolate.

I enjoy the idea that even though I'm resting, I'm accomplishing something by reading a book.

Because reading is one of the joys of life, and once you begin, you can't stop, and you've got so many stories to look forward to.

Reading is a pleasure, but to finish reading, to come to the blank space at the end, is also a pleasure.

If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.

One of my passions is that children enjoy their time at school - and reading for pleasure can be an important part of that.

Victory is only wrested by running risks.

I know not how to abstain from reading.

I look at [books] as a child looks at cakes - with glittering eyes and a watering mouth, imagining the pleasure that awaits him.

Run when you have to, fight when you must, rest when you can.

I aint dead, I aint done, I ain't scared, I aint run, no matter what, no matter what, Still I stand

Cram your head with characters and stories. Abuse your library privileges. Never stop looking at the world, and never stop reading to find out what sense other people have made of it. If people give you a hard time and tell you to get your nose out of a book, tell them you're working. Tell them it's research. Tell them to pipe down and leave you alone.

The way I see it, it's a great thing to be the man who hit the most home runs, but it's a greater thing to be the man who did the most with the home runs he hit. So as long as there's a chance that maybe I can hammer out a little justice now and then, or a little opportunity here and there, I intend to do as I always have -- keep swinging.

To the warriors of light, there is no such thing as impossible love. They don’t allow themselves to be intimidated by silence, or by rejection. They know that – behind the icy mask people wear – there is a heart of fire. That is why the warriors risk more than others. They tirelessly seek love – even if this means hearing, many times over, the word ‘no’, returning home defeated, feeling rejected in body and soul. Warriors don’t allow themselves to be discouraged. Without love, live has no meaning.

I think that the thing that holds so many of us back is our fear that we might fail, and I think we lose an incredible amount of talent and energy and enthusiasm that way. So I think, since I'm kind of a shining example of losing, that it's important for me to show that it's OK to lose, that I'm still so happy that I entered the fight, that I fought for something that mattered to me and that I gave voice to it and I made it part of the conversation. I want young women to know that it is OK to fail - it's not OK to stay home. It's not OK to not try.

Books never pall on me. They discourse with us, they take counsel with us, and are united to us by a certain living chatty familiarity. And not only does each book inspire the sense that it belongs to its readers, but it also suggests the name of others, and one begets the desire of the other.

Courage is more exhilarating than fear, and in the long run, it is easier.