LIBRARY QUOTES III

quotations about libraries

Library quote

If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.

CICERO

ad familiares

Tags: Cicero


Shelved around us lie
The mummied authors.

BAYARD TAYLOR

The Poet's Journal, Third Evening


Communities require focal points, and local libraries are a brilliant example of what that means in practice. Library buildings are centres for community information and venues for book clubs and other gatherings, as well as repositories of books and digital material. They're cross-generational spaces serving groups and individuals from childhood to old age. They offer a portal to other libraries and resources via the internet. And if you're isolated, housebound or suffering from ... lack of consistent broadband, their mobile library services provide physical links to the mother ships which can change people's lives.

FELICITY HAYES-MCCOY

"The Library at the Edge of the World author: libraries are a community's heart", The Irish Times, June 8, 2016


My library was dukedom large enough.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

The Tempest

Tags: William Shakespeare


The function of a great library is to store obscure books.

NICHOLSON BAKER

New Yorker, Apr. 4, 1994

Tags: Nicholson Baker


The main function of a library is the collection and preservation of knowledge for its dissemination to all.

R. S. KHOCHAR

Modern Cataloguing


A library is a foundation and a fountain of knowledge. It is a friend to sustainable development.

MACHELE KAFUMU MAISA

"Tanzania: When Learning Environment Improves Performance", Tanzania Daily News, June 16, 2016


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


Libraries can be an indispensable service in lifting the dead weight of poverty and ignorance.

FRANCIS KEPPEL

address at ALA Annual Conference, 1964


When in doubt, go to the library.

J. K. ROWLING

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Tags: J. K. Rowling


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


A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge.

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN

The Rivals

Tags: Richard Brinsley Sheridan


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


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


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


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

Tags: Barbara Kingsolver


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

Tags: Charles Lamb


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

Tags: Hunter S. Thompson


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

Tags: Samuel Smiles