476 Quotes About Libraries

I have an entire bookstore all to myself, and that is magical. Bookstores and libraries are a sanctuary to me, in the same way that I suspect churches are to religious people. It's a safe space and I am so grateful that it exists.

Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world and inspire us to explore and achieve, and contribute to improving our quality of life. Libraries change lives for the better.

...bookstores, libraries... they're the closest thing I have to a church.

The lamp fell right on the pile of books that had been knocked from the table all in a heap, lying open. The oil spilled out, the fire immediately seized a fragile parchment, which blazed up like a bundle of dry twigs. Everything happened in a few moments, as for centuries those ancient pages had been yearning for arson and were rejoicing in the sudden satisfaction of an immemorial thirst for ecpyrosis.

This is why I wanted to write this book, to tell about a place I love that doesn’t belong to me but feels like it is mine, and how that feels like a marvelous and exceptional thing. All the things that are wrong in the world seems conquered by a library’s simple unspoken promise: Here is my story, please listen; here I am, please tell me your story.

For every species of book person, the idea of Shakespeare’s library—his personal collection of manuscripts, books, letters and other papers—is enticing, totemic, a subject of wonder. How did he write? Who inspired him? Who appalled him? To know Shakespeare’s books is to know Shakespeare the author.

If Shakespeare was another Barrington—just an allonymous brand, just a gormless frontman—then there had to be a Machiavelli in the background—a cunning architect of an elaborate bibliographical hoax. How could such a thing be done? And what kind of person could pull it off?

Librarians are tour-guides for all of knowledge.

An ebook is like having a photo of a dead loved one. It’s convenient to look at and it will stir the mind, but it doesn’t breathe.