Amor Towles Quotes

If a man wants to read good books, he must make a point of avoiding bad ones; for life is short, and time and energy limited.

Few are sufficiently sensible of the importance of that economy in reading which selects, almost exclusively, the very first order of books. Why, except for some special reason, read an inferior book, at the very time you might be reading one of the highest order?

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

Read much, but not many works.

Life is too short to live with any but the greatest books.

The Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger (tutor to Nero) complained that his peers were wasting time and money accumulating too many books, admonishing that "the abundance of books is a distraction." Instead, Seneca recommended focusing on a limited number of good books, to be read thoroughly and repeatedly.

Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.

When I was younger, I suppose I was interested in checking out as much about writing as I could: bad, weird, irritating, even things not-to-my-taste. Now I am less open. I will decide after a few pages if I want to stay in the world of the book, and if I don't, I put it down. I have less time left.

When people ask for book recommendations, I say this: Do some math. If you read one book every week for the rest of your life, and if you're lucky enough to live for 50 more years, you're only going to get to 2,600 books.

What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt to read a hundred?

One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind. In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.

There are too many books in the world to read in a single lifetime; you have to draw the line somewhere.

I doubt if I shall ever have time to read the book again -- there are too many new ones coming out all the time which I want to read. Yet an old book has something for me which no new book can ever have -- for at every reading the memories and atmosphere of other readings come back and I am reading old years as well as an old book.

It is astonishing how many books I find there is no need for me to read at all.

I like what I read, I find it intellectually engaging and I don't really have that much time, so I gotta make every bit count. I read magazines and stuff like that, but if I'm going to read a book, I want to come out smarter. It's not to escape, it's to learn.

I don't love reading so much, but I love book shopping. It's just because I don't have much time.

Life is too short to waste time on books that end badly

I often think of that when I hear people say that they haven't time to read.

I am long on ideas, but short on time. I expect to live to be only about a hundred.

A man who attempts to read all the new productions must do as the flea does,--skip.

My sorrow is I used to read all the time and now, as a writer, I don't have the time to read.

If a writer knows what he or she is doing, I'll go along for the ride. If he or she doesn't... well, I'm in my fifties now, and there are a lot of books out there. I don't have time to waste with the poorly written ones.

There's so many good books, but I'm always like, "I'm sorry, I have five more Faulkners to read, I can't be bothered." Most of the time when you try, you fall on the wrong one.

When you find that a book is poor ... waste no more time upon it.

Books are infinite in number and time is short. The secret of knowledge is to take what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it.