Literacy Quotes

People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.

~ Malcolm X

There is no such thing as a child who hates to read, there are only children who have not found the right book.

~ Frank Serafini

When a reader enters the pages of a book of poetry, he or she enters a world where dreams transform the past into knowledge made applicable to the present, and where visions shape the present into extraordinary possibilities for the future.

~ Aberjhani

The music of revelation announces itself to the reader in somber brooding tones or in melodies light as air and one is invited to dance with the most captivating of partners: poetry.

~ Aberjhani

My bursting heart must find vent at my pen.

~ Abigail Adams

The reality of a serious writer is a reality of many voices, some of them belonging to the writer, some of them belonging to the world of readers at large.

~ Aberjhani

People cited violation of the First Amendment when a New Jersey schoolteacher asserted that evolution and the Big Bang are not scientific and that Noah's ark carried dinosaurs. This case is not about the need to separate church and state; it's about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers.

~ Neil Degrasse Tyson

With words at your disposal, you can see more clearly. Finding the words is another step in learning to see.

~ Robin Wall Kimmerer

We awaken by asking the right questions.

~ Suzy Kassem

The higher the proportion of adults with low literacy proficiency is, the slower the overall long-term GDP growth rate is.

~ Sunday Adelaja

Look at their arts, their power of turning stone into lifelike figures, and above all, the way in which they can transfer their thoughts to white leaves, so that others, many many years hence, can read them and know all that was passing, and what men thought and did in the long bygone. Truly it is marvelous.

~ G.a. Henty

Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.

~ Vera Nazarian

All over the world there are enormous numbers of smart, even gifted, people who harbor a passion for science. But that passion is unrequited. Surveys suggest that some 95 percent of Americans are “scientifically illiterate.” That’s just the same fraction as those African Americans, almost all of them slaves, who were illiterate just before the Civil War—when severe penalties were in force for anyone who taught a slave to read. Of course there’s a degree of arbitrariness about any determination of illiteracy, whether it applies to language or to science. But anything like 95 percent illiteracy is extremely serious.

~ Carl Sagan

Hey there, Hallie, welcome to the next place we need a Deer Crossing sign.' I didn't know that deers could

~ Laura Pedersen

If for us culture means museum and library and open house and art gallery, for them it meant the activities and amenities of everyday life... The rift is... between folk culture, where the unschooled can be wise, and print culture, which enslaved the other senses to the eye.

~ Nick Joaquín

Fire . . . Does that light by itself?

~ Tsukumizu

...it is very well worth while to be tormented for two or three years of one's life, for the sake of being able to read all the rest of it. Consider - if reading had not been taught, Mrs. Radcliffe would have written in vain - or perhaps might not have written at all.

~ Jane Austen

I travel to the ancient world by reading ancient books.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

...literacy is as vital as food, security, limiting population growth, and control of the environment.Education, after all, is the one issue that affects every other one. I think of it in the same way as dropping a pebble into a pond and getting a ripple effect. Educated people make more money and are more likely to escape poverty. Educated parents raise healthier children....The list goes on, just as ripples in a body of water emanate outward.

~ John Wood

Everyone must be given the opportunity to think, read and write.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Every child must be taught how to think, read and write.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Why does everyone have to pretend to be stupid and not know long words?

~ Martin Freeman

If you would tell me the heart of a man, tell me not what he reads, but what he rereads.

~ François Mauriac

One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.

~ Carl Sagan

As long as you have any floor space at all, you have room for books! Just make two stacks of books the same height, place them three or four feet apart, lay a board across them, and repeat. Viola! Bookshelves!

~ Jan Karon

All that mankind has done, thought, gained, or been; it is lying as in magic preservation in the pages of books.

~ Thomas Carlyle

No one reads; if someone does read, he doesn't understand; if he understands, he immediately forgets.

~ Stanisław Lem

When you learn to read you will be born again...and you will never be quite so alone again.

~ Rumer Godden

Wherever they went the Irish brought with them their books, many unseen in Europe for centuries and tied to their waists as signs of triumph, just as Irish heroes had once tied to their waists their enemies' heads. Where they went they brought their love of learning and their skills in bookmaking. In the bays and valleys of their exile, they reestablished literacy and breathed new life into the exhausted literary culture of Europe.And that is how the Irish saved civilization.

~ Thomas Cahill

Everyone’s talking about the death and disappearance of the book as a format and an object. I don’t think that will happen. I think whatever happens, we have to figure out a way to protect our imaginations. Stories and poetry do that. You need a language in this world. People want words, they want to hear their situation in language, and find a way to talk about it. It allows you to find a language to talk about your own pain.If you give kids a language, they can use it. I think that’s what these educators fear. If you really educate these kids, they aren’t going to punch you in the face, they are going to challenge you with your own language.

~ Jeanette Winterson

Books have given me a magic portal to connect with people of the past and the present. I know I shall never feel lonely or powerless again.

~ Lisa Bu

Art is literacy of the heart.

~ Elliot Eisner

School made us 'literate' but did not teach us to read for pleasure.

~ Ambeth R. Ocampo

I feel free and strong. If I were not a reader of books I could not feel this way. Whatever may happen to me, thank God that I can read, that I have truly touched the minds of other men.

~ Walter Tevis

Read. Everything you can get your hands on. Read until words become your friends. Them when you need to find one, they will jump into your mind, waving their hands for you to pick them. And you can select whichever you like, just like a captain choosing a stickball team.

~ Karen Witemeyer

You may have tangible wealth untold, caskets of jewels and coffers of gold. Richer than I you can never be. I had a mother who read to me.

~ Strickland Gillian

Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don't believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it.

~ John Steinbeck

Literacy is a fundamental life skill, one that serves as a portal to knowledge and a lifetime of opportunity.

~ Story Shares

If we don’t live in the same vibe, it is hard to be aware of each other. When our reading differs from our neighbors’ reality, our surroundings may take a range of discordant shades and daily episodes become unrecognizable. But if we endeavor to find out, the “who is who”, the “what is what” and the “where is Waldo”, we might demonstrate our social literacy and connectedness. (Fish for silence.)

~ Erik Pevernagie

It's a sad state of affairs when we make fun of people for reading instead of making reading fun for people.

~ Jen Selinsky