Library Libraries Quotes

A library is a hospital for the mind. - Anonymous ~ Alvin Toffler

I have always had a special affinity for libraries and librarians, for the most obvious reasons. I love books. (One of my first Jobs was shelving books at a branch of the Chicago Public Library.) 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

Libraries are the one American institution you shouldn't rip off. ~ Barbara Kingsolver

OOOOO the places you can go at the Library! ~ Oconomowoc Library

One of the most subversive institutions in the United States is the public library.. ~ Bell Hooks

Is there any sadder sight than a burnt out library? ~ Barbara Vine

To add a library to a house is to give that house a soul. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Here was one place where I could find out who I was and what I was going to become. And that was the public library. ~ Jerzy Kosinski

Society was the only threat to the sanctity of selfhood: an unpatroned library was an orderly library. ~ Reif Larsen

I think the New York Public Library is so, so amazing. It's literally the coolest place - It's good shelter from the sun and it's the most beautiful building. It's really, really fun. ~ Natalie Portman

He sat there studiously bent over his work (Bill saw him), which lay in a slant of crisp white winterlight, his face sober and absorbed, knowing that to be a librarian was to come as close as any human being can to sitting in the peak-seat of eternity's engine. ~ Stephen King

She quite happily replied that she had plenty of books to keep her company. "

The Director sighed. "Her attachment to grimoires is..."
"Concerning? Yes indeed. If she does not suffer from the lack of company, I fear it is because she sees grimoires as her friends in place of people. ~ Margaret Rogerson, Sorcery Of Thorns

There was magic, and there was magic. Thanks to Gutenberg, I could no longer pull wands, potions, and light sabers out of books, but when it came to research, give me a well-stocked library and I was a goddamned Merlin. ~ Jim C. Hines

Getting rid of most of my personal library comported nicely with my longheld fantasy of traveling light, existing with minimal encumbrances, living simply. A fantasy it has always been, for the longr I have lived, the heavier has my equipage grown. ~ Joseph Epstein

The house I grew up in is one of a kind. It's a bibliophile's fantasy, and if the Library of Congress had a little brother who was a midget, you could find him residing in my parents' house. ~ Jarod Kintz

I have been blessed with friends who do things rather than buy things: friends who will change books at the library, take a bag of your old clothes to a thrift store, bring you cuttings and plant them in a window box, fill the bird feeder in your garden when you can't get out. ~ Maeve Binchy

Belle blinked at the vision before her and inhaled sharply. Books! Books everywhere. The enormous room was two stories tall, with a spiraling stairway on each side leading up to the upper level. Leather-bound volumes filled the shelves from floor to ceiling on both floors, and the upper level looked down upon them with an open loft area surrounded by an ornate wrought-iron railing. Several rolling ladders were in front of the bookcases to allow easy access to even the highest-placed books. And best of all were the chairs and couches around the floor, and the pillows piled high by the windows, perfect for getting comfortable with a story. The library was filled with sunlight during the day, as well as having numerous lamps available for cozy nighttime reading. ~ Shoshanna Evers

It is better to buy than burrow books. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Doctor Who: You want weapons? We're in a library. Books are the best weapon in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself!
(from Tooth and Claw in Season 2) ~ Russell T. Davies

A book is one of the most patient of all man's inventions. Centuries mean nothing to a well-made book. It awaits its destined reader, come when he may, with eager hand and seeing eye. Then occurs one of the great examples of union, that of a man with a book, pleasurable, sometimes fruitful, potentially world-changing, simple; and in a library ... witho ut cost to the reader. ~ Lawrence Clark Powell

No Mr. West, it was not a choice
New children's chapter book disputes the notion that 400 years of slavery was a result of "mental imprisonment"

Cleveland, OH, - .In the words of the great Stan Lee, "With great power, comes great responsibility." When icons make erroneous statements, often they do so with out recognizing the long reaching effects their thoughtless statements may have. When Kanye West made his very controversial statements regarding slavery, describing it as a choice, an entire generation of young minds were watching and absorbing as inaccurate picture of history was painted for them and presented as fact. Author Michelle Person, former teacher, elementary school principal, and founder of Just Like Me Books (JLM) could not stand by and allow that fallacy to linger unchecked. Committed to promoting a love of reading and increasing literacy rates among high risk readers through an interactive platform that prominently features characters of color, JLM's newest release Leaders of the Revolution tells the story of Toussaint L'Ouverture and the first successful slave uprising in the western world.

The third book in the Nathaniel English series, aimed at children ages 6-11, follows 5th grade Nathaniel as he searches for solutions to his present day problems by learning about important historical figures of the past. Thanks to his mother's extensive at home library, Nathaniel is exposed to information that his teachers don't share, helpin ~ Michelle Person

A university is just a group of buildings gathered around a library. ~ Shelby Foote

What I really devoured ... was the truculence of my hosts' language: the syntax may have been brutally sloppy, but it was oh so warm in its juvenile authenticity. I feasted on their words, yes, the words flowing at that get-together of country brothers, the sort of words that, at times, delight one much more than the pleasures of the flesh. Words: repositories for singular realities which they transform into moments in an anthology, magicians that change the face of reality by adorning it with the right to become memorable, to be placed in a library of memories. Life exists only by virtue of the osmosis of words and facts, where the former encase the latter in ceremonial dress. ~ Muriel Barbery

Books were my hobby, even as a child,' he told me. 'I read about every book in Milkwaukee Public Library before I was 15...Some of the books I didn't understand- but I read them just the same. I believed, you see, that my life work would be teaching, so I wanted to learning everything I could about every possible subject. ~ Ruth Brandon

Joshua said nothing, for his mind was even now limning the vacancy. Lincoln would no more be seated on the far side of the dining table. He would no more ride his horse into town or let his huge hands rove through the library of stroll past the hemp house or listen to Eliza gabble or applaud Mary's nocturnes or argue some abstruse point of law with James or scratch behind Growler's ears as the dog lay stretched around his feet. From henceforth, there would be only space where Lincoln used to be.
And in Joshua's mind, that space began to expand and deepen until it became a vast nullity, blanketing everything around him until it seemed the night itself had been swallowed up by it. ~ Louis Bayard

I don't think if you're serious about literature your library is filled with award-winning books. ~ Andrew Wylie

Even most of those who really never have time to read a book usually have more than enough time to listen to one. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Shout for libraries. Shout for the young readers who use them. ~ Patrick Ness

Retain the Knowledge; Return the Book ~ Culver-Stockton Library Staff

Charlie Kaufman: There was this time in high school. I was watching you out the library window. You were talking to Sarah Marsh.
Donald Kaufman: Oh, God. I was so in love with her.
Charlie Kaufman: I know. And you were flirting with her. And she was being really sweet to you.
Donald Kaufman: I remember that.
Charlie Kaufman: Then, when you walked away, she started making fun of you with Kim Canetti. And it was like they were laughing at *me*. You didn't know at all. You seemed so happy.
Donald Kaufman: I knew. I heard them.
Charlie Kaufman: How come you looked so happy?
Donald Kaufman: I loved Sarah, Charles. It was mine, that love. I owned it. Even Sarah didn't have the right to take it away. I can love whoever I want.
Charlie Kaufman: But she thought you were pathetic.
Donald Kaufman: That was her business, not mine. You are what you love, not what loves you. That's what I decided a long time ago.
Donald Kaufman: What's up?
Charlie Kaufman: Thank you.
Donald Kaufman: For what? ~ Charlie Kaufman

It seemed to him that anyone with any trouble at all eventually found his way to a city library, and the really troubled ones became regulars. ~ M.E. Kerr

To exact of every man who writes that he should say something new, would be to reduce authors to a small number; to oblige the most fertile genius to say only what is new, would be to contract his volumes to a few pages. Yet, surely, there ought to be some bounds to repetition; libraries ought no more to be heaped for ever with the same thoughts differently expressed, than with the same books differently decorated. ~ Samuel Johnson

The library is not only a diary of the human race, but marks an act of faith in the continuity of humanity. ~ Vartan Gregorian

Where are you from?" She asked without thinking.
"I was born in the mountains." Runach said with a shrug. "The place doesn't matter."
"Do you have siblings?"
"Yes, several. Not all are still living. He smiled faintly. "You are full of questions this afternoon."
"The library was a bad influence on me."
Runach smiled briefly. "And I believe that was three questions you asked me, which leaves me with three of my own for you to answer."
"That was two."
"I don't count very well."
"I think you count very well," she said grimly.
He only smiled again. "I'll contemplate which answers I'll have and let you know." Aisling thought she just might be dreading them, but couldn't bring herself to say as much.
"What was your home like?" she asked.
"Another question."
"You look distracted."
He smiled and a dimple peeked out at her from his unscarred cheek. "You are more devious than I give you credit for being. I am keeping a tally, you know. I will expect a like number of answers from you."
She stared at him for a moment or two. It was difficult not to, but he didnt seem to mind. "Why?" She asked finally.
"Beacause you are a mystery."
"And do you care for a mystery?"
"I am obsessed by a good mystery," he said frankly. "More than enough to pry a few answers out of you, however I am able."
"And what if I am not inclined to give them?" She asked, her mouth suddenly dry.
"Then I will wonder about you si ~ Lynn Kurland

Francie thought that all the books in the world were in that library and she had a plan about reading all the books in the world. ~ Betty Smith

We are the Library," Coppelia pointed out. "What we don't know, we research. ~ Genevieve Cogman

Daemon snatched the yellow packages from my hands. "Oh! Books! You have books!"
I laughed as several people waiting in line looked over their shoulders. "Hand them over."
He clutched them to his chest, making moony eyes. "My life is now complete."
"My life would be complete if I could actually post a review on something other than the school library computers."
I did that about twice a week since my latest laptop went to the big computer heaven in the sky. ~ Jennifer L. Armentrout

Twas a cold Yuletide evening, and I wandered the stacks, shelving multiple titles that the patrons brought back. We toiled overtime at our library here, 'cause the powers that be cut our staffing this year. ~ David Davis

I think I would like to work in the Library."
"The Library," repeated Sanar, looking troubled. "That can be dangerous to a girl of fourteen. Or a woman of forty, for that matter."
"Only in parts," said Ryelle. "The Old Levels."
"You can't work in the Library without going into the Old Levels," said Mirelle somberly. "At least some of the time. I wouldn't be keen on going to some parts of the Library, myself. ~ Garth Nix

As they ran to the barn and began the careful climb up the steep ladder, Lily realized she had accidentally put on snow boots in her hurry. When they reached the top, the quiet hush of the still hayloft gave them that whisper-in-the-library feeling. ~ Kate Willis

To be great at something, you must look to the great ones of the
past and improve on the ideas and techniques that they started. I
was motivated to do better - to improve on the ideas of others. ~ Scott Douglas

Mom and Dad were bibliophiles. Dad shared his father's love of westerns, Mom favored the likes of Zelazny and Heinlein, Howard and Burroughs. We owned several hundred books stored in trunks that comprised our portable library. ~ Laird Barron

You and I both worry about what it means to put our personal libraries onto one gadget and then what would happen if we dropped it in the bathtub ... ~ Jason Merkoski

The Alexandrian Library was a tragedy of some moment, for it was believed to contain the complete published works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Polybius, Livy, Tacitus, and a hundred others, who have come down to us in mangled form; full texts of the pre-Socratic philosophers, who survive only in snatches; and thousands of volumes of Greek, Egyptian, and Roman history, science, literature, and philosophy. ~ Will Durant

Miss Lucinda Throckmorton-Jones, former paid companion to several of the ton's most successful debutantes of prior seasons, came to Havenhurst to fill the position of Elizabeth's duenna. A woman of fifty with wiry gray hair she scraped back into a bun and the posture of a ramrod, she had a permanently pinched face, as if she smelled something disagreeable but was too well-bred to remark upon it. In addition to the duenna's daunting physical appearance, Elizabeth observed shortly after their first meeting that Miss Throckmorton-Jones possessed an astonishing ability to sit serenely for hours without twitching so much as a finger.
Elizabeth refused to be put off by her stony demeanor and set about finding a way to thaw her. Teasingly, she called her "Lucy," and when the casually affectionate nickname won a thunderous frown from the lady, Elizabeth tried to find a different means. She discovered it very soon: A few days after Lucinda came to live at Havenhurst the duenna discovered her curled up in a chair in Havenhurt's huge library, engrossed in a book. "You enjoy reading?" Lucinda had said gruffly-and with surprise-as she noted the gold embossed title on the volume.
"Yes," Elizabeth had assured her, smiling. "Do you?"
"Have you read Christopher Marlowe?"
"Yes, but I prefer Shakespeare."
Thereafter it became their policy each night after supper to debate the merits of the individual books they'd read. Before long Elizabeth realized that she'd won the d ~ Judith McNaught

Cannot possibly know who you are, you imagine that she is suspicious of all young people-as a matter of principle- and therefore what she sees when she looks at you is not you as yourself but you as yet one more querrilla fighter in the war against authority, an unruly insurrectionist who has no business barging into the sanctum of her library and asking for work. Such are the times you live in,the times you both live in. She instructs you to put the cards in order, and you can sense how deeply she wants you to fail, how happy it will make her to reject your application, and because you want the job just as much as she doesn't want you to have it, you make sure that you don't fail. ~ Paul Auster

When I first came to London I became a Life Member of the London Library. London life was
costly, but I felt that, if the worst came to the
worst, with a constant supply of books and a
small dole for tobacco, I could cheerfully
face the Workhouse. ~ Jane Ellen Harrison

Still, Temple has no illusions concerning her library's impact. Her books won't lift anyone from their low station. They won't right wrongs or save wandering souls from perdition or fill grumbling stomachs. But they might let a few scraps of sunlight fall into some lean, desolate lives. And that's something.

'The Greatest Library of Estevan, Saskatchewan ~ Michael Christie

In principle and reality, libraries are life-enhancing palaces of wonder. ~ Gail Honeyman

hair. He's bald now. But he still looks like he could ride a bull ragged." I jump at the sound of the garage door. Mom gives me a little wave, then crosses the kitchen as silently as if she were floating on a magic carpet and disappears down the hall. Moments later, my father walks through the kitchen door, his face drawn and tired. "I figured you'd be waiting for me." "Dad, we've got to talk." Dread seems to seep from the pores in his face. "Let me get a drink. I'll meet you in the library. ~ Greg Iles