For aught that I could ever read,

Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): A Midsummer Night's Dream. Act i. Sc. 1.

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,

With loads of learned lumber in his head.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part iii. Line 53.

Exceedingly well read.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.

Shine by the side of every path we tread

With such a lustre, he that runs may read.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Tirocinium. Line 79.

Read Homer once, and you can read no more;

For all books else appear so mean, so poor,

Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,

And Homer will be all the books you need.

Sheffield, Duke Of Buckinghamshire (1649-1720): Essay on Poetry.

'T is an old tale and often told;

But did my fate and wish agree,

Ne'er had been read, in story old,

Of maiden true betray'd for gold,

That loved, or was avenged, like me.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Marmion. Canto ii. Stanza 27.

A wise man poor

Is like a sacred book that's never read,—

To himself he lives, and to all else seems dead.

This age thinks better of a gilded fool

Than of a threadbare saint in wisdom's school.

Thomas Dekker (1572-1632): Old Fortunatus.

Read my little fable:

He that runs may read.

Most can raise the flowers now,

For all have got the seed.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): The Flower.

When I can read my title clear

To mansions in the skies,

I 'll bid farewell to every fear,

And wipe my weeping eyes.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748): Hymns and Spiritual Songs. Book ii. Hymn 65.

Learn to read slow: all other graces

Will follow in their proper places.

William Walker (1623-1684): The Art of Reading.

Those about her

From her shall read the perfect ways of honour.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry VIII. Act v. Sc. 5.

And better had they ne'er been born,

Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): The Monastery. Chap. xii.

  Pol.  What do you read, my lord?

  Ham.  Words, words, words.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act ii. Sc. 2.