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Libraries Quotes

Browse 217 quotes about Libraries.

Libraries Quotes

“YOU ARE JUST You are not just for the right or left, but for what is right over the wrong. You are not just rich or poor, but always wealthy in the mind and heart. You are not perfect, but flawed. You are flawed, but you are just. You may just be conscious human, but you are also a magnificent reflection of God.”

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Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“I don’t want the books [...] to be too far away; they, also, have become friends. I even feel this way about books I don’t own. In libraries, I find myself visiting the books I used before. I regard those rows of memoirs and letters as voices from the past, bound into books, and I like to make sure they are all there, alive and well. If they have collected dust, I take out the small towel I carry in my briefcase and wipe them off. -from 2012 NYT Book Review Essay”

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Author:Robert K. Massie
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“Libraries were a solace in the Depression. They were warm and dry and useful and free; they provided a place for people to be together in a desolate time. You could feel prosperous at the library. There was so much there, such an abundance, when everything else felt scant and ravaged, and you could take any of it home for free. Or you could just sit at a reading table and take it all in.”

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Book:The Library Book
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“You are more likely to find three TVs inside a randomly selected house than you are to find a single book that is or was not read to pass an exam, to please God, or to be a better cook.”

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Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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“Elizabeth laughed and pushed her father's shoulder. "Go, Papa, and be kind to him. I love him so. And it would be to your advantage to be on his good side." Mr. Bennet raised his eyebrows. "Oh, and why is that?" Because I have seen both his libraries in London and at Pemberley, Papa." Interested and amused, Mr. Bennet said, "Ahh, and are they very grand, Lizzy?" A more exquisite sight you will not see," she assured him.”

LibraryLibrariesMr DarcyPride And Prejudice VariationElizabeth BennetPride And Prejudice AdaptationMr BennetPage 219
Book:Bluebells in the Mourning
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“The world is full of disappointment," I said. "Yes," she said, "I heard him say that. And every creature is simply trying to get what it wants, and to make their way through a difficult world. Do you believe that?" "No," I said. "There's more than that." "Like what?" "Like good books," I said, "and good people. And good librarians, who are almost both at once.”

PurposeHopeReadingBooksDespairDifficultyDisappointmentGoodMeaningGood And EvilLibrariesReadersDifficulties Of LifeLibrarians
Book:Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?
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“Pick a leader who will not only bail out banks and airlines, but also families from losing their homes -- or jobs due to their companies moving to other countries. Pick a leader who will fund schools, not limit spending on education and allow libraries to close. Pick a leader who chooses diplomacy over war. An honest broker in foreign relations. A leader with integrity, one who says what they mean, keeps their word and does not lie to their people. Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the doctor, and the environmentalist -- not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist.”

PeopleGovernmentLeadershipEducationLeaderHonestIntegrityRepublicanDiversityRacismCapitalismIntelligentDemocratHumbleProtectionEmploymentHealth CareCorporationsJobDiplomacyBankingIncentivesTeachersBankersUnderstandNationLeadSchoolsDiplomaticBig BusinessLibrariesEnvironmentalistConfidentFamiliesGuideGood LeaderGovernment CorruptionBest LeaderSlyBailBanksCompaniesHomesIdentifyFarmerBail OutIndentifiesOil TycoonPick A LeaderSelectingServes The People
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“The librarian was explaining the benefits of the Dewey decimal system to her junior--benefits that extended to every area of life. It was orderly, like the universe. It had logic. It was dependable. Using it allowed a kind of moral uplift, as one's own chaos was also brought under control. 'Whenever I am troubled,' said the librarian, 'I think about the Dewey decimal system.' 'Then what happens?' asked the junior, rather overawed. 'Then I understand that trouble is just something that has been filed in the wrong place. That is what Jung was explaining of course--as the chaos of our unconscious contents strive to find their rightful place in the index of consciousness.”

LifeOrderLogicChaosLibrariesJungFilingLibrariansDewey Decimal
Book:Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
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“Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insight and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.”

WisdomEducationKnowledgeHistoryBooksCivilizationLibraries
Book:Cosmos
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“Pick a leader who will keep jobs in your country by offering companies incentives to hire only within their borders, not one who allows corporations to outsource jobs for cheaper labor when there is a national employment crisis. Choose a leader who will invest in building bridges, not walls. Books, not weapons. Morality, not corruption. Intellectualism and wisdom, not ignorance. Stability, not fear and terror. Peace, not chaos. Love, not hate. Convergence, not segregation. Tolerance, not discrimination. Fairness, not hypocrisy. Substance, not superficiality. Character, not immaturity. Transparency, not secrecy. Justice, not lawlessness. Environmental improvement and preservation, not destruction. Truth, not lies.”

PeopleWarCountryWisdomGovernmentTruthSchoolJobsPoliticsStrongPeaceUnderstandingPresidentLeadershipJusticeFreedomMoneyRaceEducationLeaderEnvironmentTeacherHonestIntegrityRepublicanSpeechDiversityLosingRacismCapitalismDoctorsLiesVoteIntelligentElectionDemocratEnvironmentalLibraryEqualityCorruptionHumbleProtectionSpendingOilEmploymentAdministrationHealth CareCorporationsPresidentialVotingDivisionLeadersDividesJobHuman ConditionFreedom Of SpeechConservationLieDiplomacyBankingIncentivesTeachersFundingBankersPolitical ScienceUnderstandNationEnvironmentalismWordElectionsLeadSchoolsCorruptDoctorLeadership CharacteristicsDiplomaticBig BusinessLibrariesEnvironmentalistConfidentCommon ManFamiliesGuideGood LeaderLeadership TraitsPeacemakerBipartisanGovernment CorruptionBest LeaderSlyPharmaceuticalBanking SystemBailBanksCompaniesStreetVoterForeign RelationsHomesIdentifyFarmerAirlinesDivideMake America Great AgainBig PharmaEducatorsWe The PeopleBankerCensorPeacekeeperPicking SidesFor The PeopleLobbyistPharmaHeart DrivenBail OutIndentifiesOil TycoonPick A LeaderSelectingServes The PeopleUnitesHonest BrokerMan On The StreetMoney DrivenMortageMortagesStreet Level
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“Good books are rare, and to have a really good library, a few shelves are all we need. When I was still on my campus in India, I was convinced, like many professors, that if the Lord was to be found anywhere, it was in the lower stacks of the library. But now - just as when I go into a big department store, I can say, "How many things I don't need! How many expensive suits I don't want!" - when I enter a big library I say, "What tomes I don't have to read again! What folios I will never open!" This feeling of freedom will come to all of us when we realise, in the depths of our meditation, that all wisdom lies within.”

WisdomSpiritualityReadingBooksLibraries
Book:The End of Sorrow
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“In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treasure of secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or had been their conveyors.”

MindBooksCommunicationLibraries
Book:The Name of the Rose
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“Jean-Guy Beauvoir hadn't much seen the use of libraries, though he'd never have said that to Annie or her parents, who saw les biblioteques as sacred places. He hadn't grown up going to one, and now, with the internet and easy access to information, he couldn't imagine why libraries still existed. That is, until he'd gone with Annie and Honore to a children's hour at their local library. He'd seen the wonder in his son's eyes as the librarian read to them. He'd seen Honore's excitement at getting to choose books himself to take out. How he clutched them to his chest, as though he could read with his heart. Through his infant son, Jean-Guy discovered that libraries held treasures. Not just the written word, but things that couldn't be seen.”

HeartReadingWonderBooksLibraryExcitementLibrariesTreasuresBibliothequesLibres
Book:The Madness of Crowds
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“When I'm in a library, any library, I have the sense of being translated into a purely verbal dimension by a conjuring trick I've never quite understood. I know that my full, true story is there, somewhere on the shelves, and all I need is time and the chance to find it. I never do. My story remains elusive because it is never the definitive story.”

SelfStoriesBooksTransformationLibraryStoryLibraries
Book:Packing My Library: An Elegy and Ten Digressions
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“I have rooted myself into this quiet place where I don’t need much to get by. I need my visions. I need my books. I need new thoughts and lessons, from older souls, bars, whisky, libraries; different ones in different towns. I need my music. I need my songs. I need the safety of somewhere to rest my head at night, when my eyes get heavy. And I need space. Lots of space. To run, and sing, and change around in any way I please—outer or inner—and I need to love. I need the space to love ideas and thoughts; creations and people—anywhere I can find—and I need the peace of mind to understand it.”

PeopleLifeMindIdeasDifferentSoulSelfPeaceSpaceCitiesMusicVisionBooksLessonsQuietThoughtsTownsLibrarySimplicityPeace Of MindEyesSimplifyTravellerMinimalismSongsLibrariesWhiskyDiaryInnerCreationsOuter
Author:Charlotte Eriksson
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“[W]hat people truly desire is access to the knowledge and information that ultimately lead to a better life--the collected wisdom of the ages found only in one place: a well-stocked library. To the teachers and librarians and everyone on the frontlines of bringing literature to young people: I know you have days when your work seems humdrum, or unappreciated, or embattled, and I hope on those days you will take a few moments to reflect with pride on the importance of the work you do. For it is indeed of enormous importance--the job of safeguarding and sharing the world's wisdom. All of you are engaged in the vital task of providing the next generation with the tools they will need to save the world. The ability to read and access information isn't just a power--it's a superpower. Which means that you aren't just heroes--you're superheroes. I believe that with all my heart.”

ReadingLearningBooksHeroesTeachersLibrariesSuperheroesLibrarians
Author:Linda Sue Park
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“The library was a great sprawling complex with rolls and rolls of paper tucked into many shelves. Between the reading rooms were courtyards with living fountains and singing birds and butterflies that would transform into handsome young women to guide or entertain anyone who stayed there any length of time. I saw one among the stacks, explaining an older style of calligraphy to the newly appointed Heavenly Marine Official of the South China Sea. In another wing, a librarian stepped from her chrysalis for the first time, reciting T’ang Dynasty poetry to the flowers. That’s how I knew I was in the right section.”

MythologyLibrariesLibrariansChinese Literature
Book:Salt Fish Girl
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“The library is dangerous— Don’t go in. If you do You know what will happen. It’s like a pet store or a bakery— Every single time you’ll come out of there Holding something in your arms. Those novels with their big eyes. And those no-nonsense, all muscle Greyhounds and Dobermans, All non-fiction and business, Cuddly when they’re young, But then the first page is turned. The doughnut scent of it all, knowledge, The aroma of coffee being made In all those books, something for everyone, The deli offerings of civilization itself. The library is the book of books, Its concrete and wood and glass covers Keeping within them the very big, Very long story of everything. The library is dangerous, full Of answers. If you go inside, You may not come out The same person who went in.”

PoetryReadingKnowledgeLearningGrowingDangerBooksLibraryPoemsLibraries
Book:Not Go Away Is My Name
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“I'm a library-educated person; I've never made it to college. When I left high school, I began to go to the library every day of my life for five, ten, fifteen years. So the library was my nesting place, it was my birthing place, it was my growing place. And my books are full of libraries and librarians and book people, and booksellers. So my love of books is so intense that I finally have done--what? I have written a book about a man falling in love with books.”

LoveReadingEducationGrowingBooksLibrariesReadersLibrariansBooksellers
Book:Fahrenheit 451
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“I wanted to pursue things, to know things, but I could not match the means of knowing that came naturally to me with the expectations of professors. The pursuit of knowing was freedom to me, the right to declare your own curiosities and follow them through all manner of books. I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people's interests. The library was open, unending, free. Slowly, I was discovering myself.”

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Book:Between the World and Me
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“Books are the mind's ballast, for so many of us--the cargo that makes us what we are, a freight that is ephemeral and indelible, half-forgotten but leaving an imprint. They are nutrition, too. My old age fear is not being able to read--the worst deprivation. Or no longer having my books around me: the familiar, eclectic, explanatory assemblage that hitches me to the wide world, that has freed me from the prison of myself, that has helped me to think, and to write.”

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Book:Ammonites And Leaping Fish: A Life In Time
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“We were very much a reading family, but we were a borrow-a-book-from-the-library family more than a bookshelves-full-of-books family. My parents valued books, but the grew up in the Depression, aware of the quicksilver nature of money, and they learned the hard way that you shouldn't buy what you could borrow. Because of that frugality, or perhaps independent of it, they also believed that you read a book for the experience of reading it.”

ReadingMoneyFamilyBooksExperienceBorrowingLibrariesFrugalityThe Depression
Book:The Library Book
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“We were very much a reading family, but we were a borrow-a-book-from-the-library family more than a bookshelves-full-of-books family. My parents valued books, but they grew up in the Depression, aware of the quicksilver nature of money, and they learned the hard way that you shouldn't buy what you could borrow. Because of that frugality, or perhaps independent of it, they also believed that you read a book for the experience of reading it.”

ReadingMoneyFamilyBooksExperienceBorrowingLibrariesFrugalityThe Depression
Book:The Library Book
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“The only way to make a library safe is to lock people out of it. As long as they are allowed to read the books 'any old time they have a mind to,' libraries will remain the nurseries of heresy and independence of thought. They will, in fact, preserve that freedom which is a far more important part of our lives than any ideology or orthodoxy, the freedom that dissolves orthodoxies and inspires solutions to the ever-changing challenges of the future. I hope that your library and mine will continue in this way to be dangerous for many years to come.”

IdeasFreedomBooksThoughtLibraries
Book:American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America
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“In the library I search for a good book. We have many books, says Mrs. Rose, the librarian, and ALL of them are good. Of course she says that. It's her job. But do I want to read about Trucks Trains and Transport? Or even Horses Houses and Hyenas? In the fiction corner there are pink boks full of princesses and girls who want to be princesses and black books about bad boys and brave boys and brawny boys. Where is the book about a girl whose poems don't rhyme and whose Granny is fading? Pearl, says Mrs. Rose, the bell has rung. I go back to class empty-handed empty headed empty-hearted.”

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Book:Pearl Verses the World
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“I was not only invited to read: I was expected to read. Reading was my responsibility, in English and Spanish. Like many poor kids before me, I was given the best gift anyone could hope for--a library card. On Saturdays, my mother and I would take the #11 bus downtown. I'd haul my stack of the week's books inside and come back out with a new armload. I was a millionaire.”

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Book:Six Kinds of Sky: A Collection of Short Fiction
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