LIBRARY QUOTES III
quotations about libraries
The function of a great library is to store obscure books.
NICHOLSON BAKER
New Yorker, Apr. 4, 1994
I attempted briefly to consecrate myself in the public library, believing every crack in my soul could be chinked with a book.
BARBARA KINGSOLVER
The Poisonwood Bible
Libraries are the wardrobes of our literature, whence men, properly informed, might bring something for ornament, much for curiosity, and more for use.
GEORGE DYER
History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge; Including Notices Relating to the Founders and Eminent Men
When in doubt, go to the library.
J. K. ROWLING
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library; for who can see the wall crowded on every side by mighty volumes, the works of laborious meditation and accurate enquiry, now scarcely known but by the catalogue, and preserved only to increase the pomp of learning, without considering how many hours have been wasted in vain endeavours, how often imagination has anticipated the praises of futurity, how many statues have risen to the eye of vanity, how many ideal converts have elevated zeal, how often wit has exulted in the eternal infamy of his antagonists, and dogmatism has delighted in the gradual advances of his authority, the immutability of his decrees, and the perpetuity of his power.
SAMUEL JOHNSON
The Rambler, Mar. 23, 1751
My library was dukedom large enough.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
The Tempest
My library is an archive of longings.
SUSAN SONTAG
As Consciousness is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.
CICERO
ad familiares
Libraries can be an indispensable service in lifting the dead weight of poverty and ignorance.
FRANCIS KEPPEL
address at ALA Annual Conference, 1964
A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge.
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN
The Rivals
Nothing is more impotent than an unread library.
JOHN WATERS
Role Models
Shelved around us lie
The mummied authors.
BAYARD TAYLOR
The Poet's Journal, Third Evening
A library is a precious catacomb, wherein are embalmed and preserved imperishably the great minds of the dead who will never die.
CHATFIELD
attributed, Day's Collacon
Libraries are a pillar of any society. I believe our lack of attention to funding and caring for them properly in the United States has a direct bearing on problems of literacy, productivity, and our inability to compete in today's world. Libraries are everyman's free university.
JOHN JAKES
Homeland
Not too long ago, I was spoon-feeding my nephew baby porridge, when I overheard a piece on the breakfast news about libraries. My ears perked up. Like every author, I feel a seeing-red-rage rise up inside me each time I hear about the library cuts. I looked up. A spokesperson from the Institute of Economic Affairs began their spiel. I gave my nephew another a spoonful of porridge. I listened. I missed my nephew's mouth with the spoon. I started making outrage-noises; they sounded not unlike a snorting pig mixed up with a pot of boiling water. My nephew grabbed his porridge spoon. I grabbed my laptop and started typing out the words that I was hearing. They seemed so ludicrous that I thought I'd heard them wrong. Your average library doesn't come close to having as much information as the Internet. And coffee shops have the internet. We don't need libraries anymore -- you can [buy] books online instead for literally pennies! My nephew covered himself in porridge: eyebrows, nose, most of forehead, a lot of his fluffy hair too. The breakfast news slid onto its next story, in that compartmentalizing way it has, and we were left reeling, porridge-splattered and screaming.
POLLY HO-YEN
"The internet and coffee shops are no replacement for libraries", The Guardian, June 10, 2016
What a place to be is an old library! It seems as though all the souls of all the writers, that have bequeathed their labours ... were reposing here, as in some dormitory, or middle state. I do not want to handle, to profane the leaves, their winding-sheets.
CHARLES LAMB
Elia and the Last Essays of Elia
The establishment of a library is an ideal benchmark for serving the society.
BIPIN RAI
"There's now a library for the homeless in Delhi", Deccan Chronicle, June 6, 2016
In all, libraries help build a strong and vibrant community by literacy improvements, by connecting people and ideas, helping with workforce development and by helping the development of a community identity.
P. D. MOWBRAY, JR.
"Libraries are more than books", Roanoke Times, May 19, 2016
Let us toast to animal pleasures, to escapism, to rain on the roof and instant coffee, to unemployment insurance and library cards.
HUNTER S. THOMPSON
The Proud Highway
The possession of a library, or the free use of it, no more constitutes learning, than the possession of wealth constitutes generosity.
SAMUEL SMILES
Self-Help