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Library Quotes

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Library Quotes

“As humans, we have invented lots of useful kinds of lie. As well as lies-to-children ('as much as they can understand') there are lies-to-bosses ('as much as they need to know') lies-to-patients ('they won't worry about what they don't know') and, for all sorts of reasons, lies-to-ourselves. Lies-to-children is simply a prevalent and necessary kind of lie. Universities are very familiar with bright, qualified school-leavers who arrive and then go into shock on finding that biology or physics isn't quite what they've been taught so far. 'Yes, but you needed to understand that,' they are told, 'so that now we can tell you why it isn't exactly true.' Discworld teachers know this, and use it to demonstrate why universities are truly storehouses of knowledge: students arrive from school confident that they know very nearly everything, and they leave years later certain that they know practically nothing. Where did the knowledge go in the meantime? Into the university, of course, where it is carefully dried and stored.”

“—Cada uno de nosotros sigue perdiendo algo muy preciado —dice cuando el teléfono deja de sonar—. Oportunidades importantes, posibilidades, sentimientos que no podrán recuperarse jamás. Esto es parte de lo que significa estar vivo. Pero dentro de nuestra cabeza, porque creo que es ahí donde debe de estar, hay un pequeño cuarto donde vamos dejando todo esto en forma de recuerdos. Seguro que es algo parecido a las estanterías de esta biblioteca. Y nosotros, para localizar dónde se esconde algo de nuestro corazón, tenemos que ir haciendo siempre fichas catalográficas. Hay que limpiar, ventilar la habitación, cambiar el agua de los jarrones de flores. Dicho de otro modo, tú deberás vivir hasta el fin de tus días en tu propia biblioteca.”

“We are the heart of our communities, and that only works because of what the people who run libraries give of themselves. They do it knowing that there will be hard days and disappointment, budget fights, and individuals whom they may not be able to reach. The best librarians make that emotional investment because they believe in the institution and the community they serve.”

“Organizing the books was a fun afternoon. We decided to put the thick hardback books, mostly intro. to philosophy textbooks and Norton literature anthologies, on the top shelves where they looked good but stayed out of reach since there's no reason for opening them ever again. Then we went by genre: mysteries, cozies, modernists, mountains, sci-fi, beloved childhood volumes, books we bought abroad, books required in school we couldn't sell back, books bought for us we'll read soon, books bought for us we have no intention of reading, books we want to read but are too long for a commitment with our current schedules...We're not really done with this organization, and I doubt we ever will be, but that's one great part about it.”

“I exercised my mental muscles in the library, and lo and behold, I transformed myself from a casual reader into a focused one. So it was more than just free books, but also free space and a culture that reinforced settling down, deep reading, thinking, imagining, and exploring with my mind. I am no doubt a writer today because I had a place to go as a kid, where I knew stories were essential, and where everybody also reveled in the wonder within books.”

“The Great Library of Alyssium, with its soaring spires, stained-glass windows, and labyrinthine bookshelves, was the jewel of the Crescent Islands Empire. Its hallowed stacks were filled with centuries-old treatises, histories, studies, and (most importantly, in Kiela's opinion) spellbooks. Only the elite, the crème de la crème of the scholars, were allowed to even view the spellbooks, as only the rarefied few were permitted, by imperial law, to use magic.”

“Ivy and Rose's favorite spot in the cottage was the library, and there were trinkets and talismans hidden behind all the books they loved most. Those numbered in the hundreds, and they were rarely without one. Back in those days, no one cared if girls went to school, so Ivy and Rose were free to learn what they thought was necessary. If Ivy discovered the diary of a medieval botanist--- or a dusty grimoire with ancient symbols scribbled in the margins--- she could go an entire week without speaking. No one in her family minded at all. Rose, whose taste in books leaned toward romance and poetry, was happy to speak for the both of them.”

“Tall and scuffed, the bookshelves covered nearly three-quarters of the library's walls, and their owner did not care much for organisation. For example, on the first wall of shelves, nearest to the front door, Evangeline found a number of different books about time travel, but none of them were grouped together. They were scattered haphazardly, placed next to volumes on topics like the colour blue, how to write poetry, an encyclopaedia for the letter E.”

“Julian, locul acesta este o taină, un sanctuar. Fiecare carte, fiecare tom pe care-l vezi are suflet. Sufletul celui care a scris-o și sufletul celor care au citit-o, au trăit și au visat cu ea. De fiecare dată când o carte ajunge în mâinile altcuiva, de fiecare dată când altcineva îți lasă privirea să alunece pe paginile ei, un spirit crește și se face tot mai puternic. Când bunicul tău m-a adus aici, cu mulți ani în urmă, locul acesta era deja vechi. Poate că e la fel de vechi ca orașul însuși. Nimeni nu știe exact de când există sau cine l-a creat. O să-ți spun ce mi-a spus și mie bunicul tău. Când piere o bibliotecă sau se închide o librărie, când o carte dispare în noianul uitării, cei care știm de existența acestui loc, paznicii lui, facem tot ce trebuie pentru ca ea să ajungă aici. În locul acesta cărțile de care nu-și mai amintește nimeni, cărțile pierdute în negura timpului, continuă să trăiască, așteptând ca într-o bună zi să ajungă din nou în mâinile unui nou cititor, ale unui nou spirit. La librăria noastră vindem cărți noi și cumpărăm cărți vechi, dar în realitate cărțile nu au stăpân. Fiecare carte de aici a fost cel mai bun prieten al cuiva. Acum ne mai are doar pe noi, Julian. Vei putea păstra secretul acesta?”

“A library is a place to go for a reality check, a bracing dose of literature, or a "true reflection of our history," whether it's a brick-and-mortar building constructed a century ago or a fanciful arrangement of computer codes. The librarian is the organizer, the animating spirit behind it, and the navigator. Her job is to create order out of the confusion of the past, even as she enables us to blast into the future.”

“What have you been doing to that book, you depraved boy?' 'It isn't the library's, it's mine!' said Harry hastily, snatching his copy of Advanced Potion-Making off the table as she lunged at it with a clawlike hand. 'Despoiled!' she hissed. 'Desecrated! Befouled!' 'It's just a book that's been written in!' said Harry, tugging it out of her grip. She looked as though she might have a seizure; Hermione, who had hastily packed her things, grabbed Harry by the arm and frogmarched him away. 'She'll ban you from the library if you're not careful. Why did you have to bring that stupid book?' 'It's not my fault she's barking mad, Hermione. Or d'you think she overheard you being rude about Filch? I've always thought there might be something going on between them ...”

“Something drew her attention. Her eyes narrowed as if to bring a distant object into focus. "I have a new sense,” she realized. “I feel myself standing on the surface of a vast library.” She turned in a circle, scanning the featureless blue plain. “I feel the presence of well-ordered data.” She reached out, and to Kona’s surprise, a curving side path appeared in response to her beckoning gesture. Files sprang up on the path, each one a thin, vertical pane large enough to step into. The first file in the stack showed a branching map of the library with all its major sections neatly labeled.”

“Everything smelled of dust trapped in light, cracked leather and wayward dreams. Breathing in and out through her nose, Tella looked down at the Map of All. It had transformed once they'd entered the library. It now revealed an entire kingdom made of books that could either have been a book lover's nightmare or their wish come true. There was a Broken Spine Castle, an Unread River, a Ravine of Ripped Pages, a Poetry Valley, a set of Novel Mountains, and then finally, the Ruscica and Books for Advanced Imaginations. The most direct route to this room was through an area referred to as The Zoo. Tella wondered if it would have books in cages, but The Zoo didn't even have bookshelves. The books all roamed freely in this room as they clung together to take the shapes of different animals. Tella spied bookish rhinos, paper-mache elephants and very tall giraffes that milled about in an oddly peaceful silence. The elephant sniffed at Tella with its leathery-grey trunk of books, while a paper bunny made of loose pages noiselessly hopped after Legend. The bunny continued to follow as they left The Zoo and reached The Reading Chamber, where books formed couches and chairs and one massive throne.”

“The books were in no particular order, and Lundy found the process of sorting them remarkably soothing, involving, as it did, a strange sort of scavenger hunt through the entire shack. Books had been used to prop up tables and level out shelves; they were piled on surfaces where books had no business being and tucked under the edge of the thin mattress of the Archivist's bed. In the case of books that had become load-bearing, Lundy used her school ruler to carefully note their heights and went searching for rocks or pieces of scrap wood that would do the job as well, if not better. In the case of books left too near to water or exposed to the air, she rolled her eyes and whisked them away to literary safety.”

“A fig for your precious society with its bridge parties, its inane chatter, its cheap mentality; its dances and vulgar banquets; its snobbery and cheap pretension. The humblest library can show you upon a single shelf better society and far more select company than all the drawing-rooms of Europe, America, and South Africa.”

“ஒருவகையில், புத்தகங்களை வைக்க இடமில்லாத நெருக்கடிதான் புத்தகம் படிப்பதைக் காப்பாற்றி வைத்திருக்கிறது என்பேன். வீட்டில் மிகப் பெரிய நாலகங்களை அமைத்தவர்கள் அதன்பிறகு படிப்பதையே விட்ட கதையை நான் அறிவேன். நெருக்கடியான இடத்திற்குள் மறைத்தும் ஒளித்தும் சண்டையிட்டும் சேகரிக்கப்பட்ட புத்தகங்களே நம்மை மறுபடி வாசிக்கத் தூண்டுகின்றன.”