Christian Giants on Reading
Quotes From Christian Leaders Throughout History on Reading
Charles Spurgeon is said to have read about 6 books a week. John Wesley encouraged pastors to read around 5 hours a day.
The voices gathered here share a conviction that reading is not merely intellectual exercise, but transformative discipline. From Augustine's conversion through Scripture to Lewis's call for literary companionship across the ages, these thinkers saw books as instruments of formation, not just information.
These quotes are arranged chronologically by birth year, spanning nearly two millennia of wisdom about the power of the written word.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
"Tolle, lege: take up and read." — Confessions (from the famous account of his conversion)
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man." — Essays (1597)
Richard Baxter (1615-1691)
"It is a contradiction to be a teacher and yet be unwilling to learn." — The Reformed Pastor (1656)
John Wesley (1703-1791)
"What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear to this day, is want of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher who read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it so long, you have now lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. Oh begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not. What is tedious at first will afterward be pleasant. Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty, superficial preacher." — Letter to John Trembath
Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892)
"We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure is to be either reading or praying."
"Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own." — Lectures to My Students
"Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and re-read them, masticate them and digest them."
"A student will find that it is his wisdom to read much, and not to read too many books. Read the best books over and over again." — Commenting and Commentaries
BB Warfield (1851-1921)
"He can talk well because he knows what he is talking about. He has studied it, read about it, thought about it." — The Religious Life of Theological Students (1911)
GK Chesterton (1874-1936)
"The ethics of Elfland... taught me that this world is a wild and startling place, which might have been quite different, but which is magic only because it is a certain way." — Orthodoxy (1908)
CS Lewis (1898-1963)
"My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others." — An Experiment in Criticism (1961), Chapter 2
"Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period." — Introduction to Athanasius' On the Incarnation (1944)
"I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once." — Letter to Arthur Greeves, October 1931 (The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Vol. 1)
"The sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers 'I've read it already' to be a conclusive argument against reading a work." — An Experiment in Criticism (1961), Chapter 5
"You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me."
"Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires... in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become." — An Experiment in Criticism
JRR Tolkien (1892-1973)
"A good vocabulary is not acquired by reading books written according to some notion of the vocabulary of one's age group... but by reading books above one." — Letter to Mrs. Faith Faulconbridge, July 1971 (The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 323)
"The story-maker proves a successful 'sub-creator.' He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is 'true': it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside." — On Fairy-Stories
JI Packer (1926-2020)
"Read two old books for every new one."
John Stott (1921-2011)
"Good preaching is impossible without good study, and good study means reading." — Between Two Worlds (1982)
Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015)
"Refuse to waste time on things that do not matter. Read good books." — Discipline: The Glad Surrender
Whether you're just beginning to cultivate a reading habit or seeking to deepen your current practice, these voices across the centuries offer the same counsel: read deliberately, read deeply, and read with purpose. As Spurgeon reminds us, the choice is simple—spend your leisure either reading or praying. Perhaps the wisest among us do both.
Thanks for putting this together! I love it.