Genuinely Dr. Seuss — one of the rare famous-name feel-good lines that survives checking. It is a four-line verse in I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!, the Beginner Book he published with Random House in 1978, in which the Cat in the Hat talks Young Cat into opening his eyes. Wikiquote’s sourced section ↗ files it under that book and that year.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go” Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (New York: Beginner Books / Random House, 1978). Verified at quotle.info
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In context
Evoking the world of Dr. Seuss — American children’s author, illustrator & cartoonist. Theme: "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
The source
Work
I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
Published
1978 — Beginner Books, New York (a division of Random House)
Form
A four-line verse, spoken by the Cat in the Hat to Young Cat
Language
English — written in English, no translation involved
The more that you read, The more things you will know. The more that you learn, The more places you’ll go.
Verse, 1978
The book sets the quote as four short lines, not the single run-on sentence it becomes on social media. Wikiquote ↗ records two more passages from the same title that give the surrounding argument: “Young cat! If you keep / Your eyes open enough, / Oh, the stuff you will learn! / The most wonderful stuff!” and “you’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.”
Wikiquote’s Dr. Seuss entry ↗ lists the verse in its sourced section — not Disputed, not Misattributed — under the heading “I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (1978),” and bolds it as the book’s best-known passage.
The book itself checks out as a real 1978 Seuss title: the Wikipedia article ↗ gives Random House, 1978, and the Cat in the Hat / Young Cat framing, while the Internet Archive catalog record ↗ shows Beginner Books, New York, 1978, 40 pages, ISBN 0394839129.
Independent parties quote the line to that book: the New York Public Library ↗ attributes it to I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!, and the publisher’s own listing on Penguin Random House’s Brightly ↗ opens its description of the book with the same lines.
No Quote Investigator article turned up for this quote, which is itself a signal: QI writes up contested attributions, and this one is not contested — it sits in a named, in-print book.
I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! was first published in 1978 — decades after the pre-1931 line that marks the US public domain — so the text is firmly in copyright. Wikipedia ↗ records that Dr. Seuss Enterprises owns the rights to the books and their licensing, and the title remains in print from Random House. Quoting the four lines with attribution is ordinary citation; the verse is not free to reproduce commercially.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
What to watch for
The attribution here is right, which makes this quote unusual: Dr. Seuss is one of the most heavily faked names in circulation. Two things are still worth getting straight — which of his books this actually comes from, and which of the lines sitting beside it online are not his at all.
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Wrong bookOh, the Places You’ll Go! (1990) mis-sourced
The closing line ends “the more places you’ll go,” which reads like a pointer to Seuss’s famous 1990 graduation book. It is not one. Wikiquote ↗ keeps the two books in separate sourced sections and records completely different lines under Oh, the Places You’ll Go! — “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes” and “You’re off to great places. Today is your day!”
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Not Seuss at allGeorges Duhamel, Bernard Baruch and Robert Fulghum fabricated credit
Wikiquote’s Misattributed section ↗ reassigns three lines routinely pinned on Seuss: “Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory” to Georges Duhamel in The Heart’s Domain (1919); “Those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind” to Bernard Baruch as quoted by Bennett Cerf in 1948; and “We’re all a little weird…” to Robert Fulghum’s True Love (1998). A fourth, “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep…,” it marks simply as attributed to him on social media.
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Filed as unresolved“Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” disputed
Perhaps the single most-shared “Seuss” line, and Wikiquote lists it in its Disputed section ↗, noting it is attributed to him without citation and also circulates as an anonymous proverb and under other names. Nothing like it appears in the sourced list of his books.
The verse is not a graduation-card aphorism that drifted onto Dr. Seuss’s name. It is a piece of instructional argument. I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! is built as a bit: the Cat in the Hat boasts that he can read with his eyes closed, then spends the rest of the book conceding it is harder that way and that the reward for keeping them open is enormous. The four lines about reading and going places are the moral of that bit, aimed at a five-year-old who has just worked out what letters do.
That is also why the line travels so well out of context. Stripped of the Cat, it reads as a library poster, and it has been used as one for decades — the New York Public Library ↗ lists it among its favourite Seuss lines, correctly sourced to the 1978 book.
you’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut
More about the book
I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! was published by Random House in 1978 in the Beginner Books line, and is dedicated to David Worthen, E.G. (“Eye Guy”), Geisel’s ophthalmologist — per the Wikipedia article on the book ↗.
The estate has kept the couplet in circulation in its own right: the official Art of Dr. Seuss ↗ collection sells a print adapted posthumously from an early concept drawing and the final illustration for the 1978 book.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1904–1991 · American children’s author, illustrator & cartoonist
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1904 and published more than sixty children’s books, most of them through Random House in North America. Much of his later work leaned into deliberately simplified vocabulary sold under the Beginner Books line — The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and this 1978 title among them. He died in 1991; the rights to his books, films and licensing are now held by Dr. Seuss Enterprises.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source
Dr. Seuss [Theodor Seuss Geisel]. I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! New York: Beginner Books / Random House, 1978. Verse recorded in the sourced section of Wikiquote’s Dr. Seuss entry.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go’?” Last verified 7 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-more-that-you-read-the-more-things-you-will-know-the/