12 Inspiring Literacy Quotes

Writers Write is a comprehensive resource for writers. In this post, we share a selection of our favourite literacy quotes.

To celebrate International Literacy Day, I’ve put together a selection of inspiring quotes about literacy.

‘International Literacy Day, celebrated annually on 8 September, is an opportunity for Governments, civil society and stakeholders to highlight improvements in world literacy rates, and reflect on the world’s remaining literacy challenges.’

12 Inspiring Literacy Quotes

1. Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. ~Frederick Douglass
2. So it is with children who learn to read fluently and well: They begin to take flight into whole new worlds as effortlessly as young birds take to the sky. ~ William James
3. There are many little ways to enlarge your child’s world. Love of books is the best of all. ~Jacqueline Kennedy
4. I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of the hunger of life that gnaws in us all, to keep alive in our hearts a sense of the inexpressibly human. ~Richard Wright
5. People don’t realise how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book. ~Malcolm X
6. When you learn to read you will be born again…and you will never be quite so alone again. ~Rumer Godden
7. Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development…. Literacy is a platform for democratisation, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity….For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right…. Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realise his or her full potential. ~Kofi Annan
8. To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark. ~Victor Hugo
9. 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 Gillilan
10. Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light. ~Vera Nazarian
11. Fairy tales in childhood are stepping stones throughout life, leading the way through trouble and trial. The value of fairy tales lies not in a brief literary escape from reality, but in the gift of hope that goodness truly is more powerful than evil and that even the darkest reality can lead to a Happily Ever After. Do not take that gift of hope lightly. It has the power to conquer despair in the midst of sorrow, to light the darkness in the valleys of life, to whisper ‘One more time’ in the face of failure. Hope is what gives life to dreams, making the fairy tale the reality. ~L.R. Knost
12. We read to know we are not alone. ~C. S. Lewis

Find out more about international literacy rates and data here.

by Amanda Patterson

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