A Quote by Edward Abbey

There are only two kinds of books -- good books and the others. The good are winnowed from the bad through the democracy of time.

Edward Abbey

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Bad Books Democracy Good Good Book Kinds Only Others Through Time Two

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Edward Abbey
American - Author
January 29, 1927 - March 14, 1989

The current publishing scene is extremely good for the big, popular books. They sell them brilliantly, market them and all that. It is not good for the little books. And really valuable books have been allowed to go out of print. In the old days, the publishers knew that these difficult books, the books that appeal only to a minority, were very productive in the long run. Because they're probably the books that will be read in the next generation.

Doris Lessing

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.

Arthur Schopenhauer

I was, without a sliver of a doubt, a no-good, lazy slacker of a child, and after I discovered literature, I was totally and utterly a no-good, lazy slacker of a child who read books. A lot of books, good and bad, but my favourite - the books I read and reread in my teens - were by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

Ben Peek

Writing is a job, a craft, and you learn it by trying to write every day and by facing the page with humility and gall. And you have to love to read books, all kinds of books, good books. You are not looking for anything in particular; you are just letting stuff seep in.

Stephen Dobyns

There are only two kinds of books which you can write and be pretty sure you're going to make a living ? cook books and detective stories.

Rex Stout

We are in a great school, and we should be diligent to learn, and continue to store up the knowledge of heaven and of earth, and read good books, although I cannot say that I would recommend the reading of all books, for it is not all books which are good. Read good books, and extract from them wisdom and understanding as much as you possibly can, aided by the Spirit of God. (JD 12:124)

Brigham Young

Since I was trying so hard to make books lead my life, I didn’t want to read them and then just put them back on the shelf and say, “good book,” as if I was patting a good dog. I wanted books to change me, and I wanted to write books that would change others.

Jack Gantos

I knew I would read all kinds of books and try to get at what it is that makes good writers good. But I made no promises that I would write books a lot of people would like to read.

Carl Sandburg

I am kind of a sucker for democracy, so I do think that what kinds of citizens we have in our societies are more foundational than what kinds of governments we have, and that the responsibility for self-government is ultimately with us. But we also have learned through a couple thousand years of democracy that democracies are only as good as people's capacity to reflect on those questions.

Sheila Jasanoff

Only bad books have good endings. If a book is any good, it's ending is always bad - because you don't want the book to end.

Pseudonymous Bosch

It's like Duke Ellington said, there are only two kinds of music - good and bad. And you can tell when something is good.

Ray Charles

We do not so much want books for good people, as books which will make bad ones better.

Hannah More

Good books are irrefutable, and bad books refute themselves.

Remy de Gourmont

Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.

Mary Ann Shaffer

One of the maddening ironies of writing books is that it leaves so little time for reading others'. My bedside is piled with books, but it's duty reading: books for book research, books for review. The ones I pine for are off on a shelf downstairs.

Mary Roach

There are a lot of people out there who will write books, in which everything turns out nicely and the bad guys lose, the good guys win, the boy gets the girl and they live happily ever after. There's a million books like that and if that's the comfort you're looking for, you should read those books and not my books because that's not the kind of book that I am interested in.

George R. R. Martin

A Quote by Edward Abbey

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