#library

A public library is the most democratic thing in the world. What can be found there has undone dictators and tyrants: demagogues can persecute writers and tell them what to write as much as they like, but they cannot vanish what has been written in the past, though they try often enough...People who love literature have at least part of their minds immune from indoctrination. If you read, you can learn to think for yourself. ↗

— Doris Lessing

#love

They say that Caliph Omar, when consulted about what had to be done with the library of Alexandria, answered as follows: 'If the books of this library contain matters opposed to the Koran, they are bad and must be burned. If they contain only the doctrine of the Koran, burn them anyway, for they are superfluous.' Our learned men have cited this reasoning as the height of absurdity. However, suppose Gregory the Great was there instead of Omar and the Gospel instead of the Koran. The library would still have been burned, and that might well have been the finest moment in the life of this illustrious pontiff. ↗

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

#alexandria #caliph #intolerance #library #men

Libraries are the future of reading. When the economy is down, we need to make it easier for people to buy and read books for free, not harder. It is stupid to sacrifice tomorrow’s book buyers for today’s dollars, especially when it’s obvious that the source in question doesn’t have any more dollars to give you. ↗

— Courtney Milan

#economy #libraries #library #money #readingy

Say what you had to about Ethan, but the boy filled a library very, very well. Okay—arguably, that wasn’t the only thing he filled out well, but let’s stay on track. ↗

— Chloe Neill

#library

If your library is not "unsafe," it probably isn't doing its job. ↗

— John Berry

#libraries #library #reading #job

I couldn't help thinking that if I, by pure chance, had found a whole universe in a single unknown book, buried in that endless necropolis, tens of thousands more would remain unexplored, forgotten forever. I felt myself surrounded by millions of abandoned pages, by worlds and souls without an owner sinking in an ocean of darkness, while the world that throbbed outside the library seemed to be losing its memory, day after day, unknowingly, feeling all the wiser the more it forgot. ↗

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

#library

We'll always need printed books that don't mutate the way digital books do; we'll always need places to display books, auditoriums for book talks, circles for story time; we'll always need brick-and-mortar libraries. ↗

— Marilyn Johnson

#libraries #library #librarians

We don’t have to destroy the library of the past. We just need to give it a face-lift. ↗

— Scott Douglas

#library #library-books #quiet-please #librarians

Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open. ↗

— Laura Bush

#allow #always #answers #ask #child

First, this isn't about telecommuting, because we still have offices that people will come to regularly when they need to brainstorm together, meet with clients, or do research in the library. ↗

— Jay Chiat

#because #brainstorm #clients #come #first