Activists, authors, journalists, educators, entrepreneurs, and justices, these remarkable women throughout history share a common activity: reading books. Read these 10 quotes about reading by some of the world’s most well-known and most respected inspirational women.

1.

“I do not remember a time when I could not read, nor any time when reading was not a joy and a solace.”―Emmeline Pankhurst, My Own Story

via wikipedia.org

2.

“Literature is my Utopia.”―Helen Keller, author of The Story of My Life

via wikipedia.org

3.

“Books are the mirrors of the soul.”―Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts

via wikipedia.org

4.

“The whole world opened to me when I learned to read.”—Mary McLeod Bethune

via wikipedia.org

5.

“The reason that fiction is more interesting than any other form of literature, to those who really like to study people, is that in fiction the author can really tell the truth without humiliating himself.”―Eleanor Roosevelt, author of The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt

via wikipedia.org

6.

“Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”―Maya Angelou, author of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Courtesy, William J. Clinton Presidential Library

Related: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Maya Angelou

7.

“Wherever I go, bookstores are still the closest thing to a town square.”―Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road

Photo by Gage Skidmore

8.

“Even today, when I read, I notice with pleasure when an author has chosen a particular word, a particular place, for the picture it will convey to the reader.”―Ruth Bader Ginsburg, My Own Words 

via wikipedia.org

9.

“Books allowed me to see a world beyond the front porch of my grandmother’s shotgun house…[and] the power to see possibilities beyond what was allowed at the time.”―Oprah Winfrey, author of The Wisdom of Sundays: Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations

Photo by aphrodite-in-nyc

10.

“I think it’s the books that you read when you’re young that live with you forever.”—J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series

Photo by Daniel Ogren

Related: 20 Quotes About Reading By Some Of The Greatest Minds Of All Time

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