#libraries

"A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them."

"An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them."

"A library is a place where you learn what teachers were afraid to teach you."

"Walking the stacks in a library, dragging your fingers across the spines -- it's hard not to feel the presence of sleeping spirits."

"There are many horrible sights in the multiverse. Somehow, though, to a soul attuned to the subtle rhythms of a library, there are few worse sights than a hole where a book ought to be.Someone had stolen a book."

"What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it feels about education."

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

"A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert."

"Epics are never written about libraries. They exist on whim; it depends on if the conquering army likes to read."

"anyone who’s worth anything reads just what he likes, as the mood takes him, and with extravagant enthusiasm."

"Libraries should be open to all - except the censor.[Response to questionnaire in Saturday Review, October 29 1960]"

"A leader should always be open to criticism, not silencing dissent. Any leader who does not tolerate criticism from the public is afraid of their dirty hands to be revealed under heavy light. And such a leader is dangerous, because they only feel secure in the darkness. Only a leader who is free from corruption welcomes scrutiny; for scrutiny allows a good leader to be an even greater leader."

"Librarians are tour-guides for all of knowledge."

"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."

"Public libraries have been a mainstay of my life. They represent an individual's right to acquire knowledge; they are the sinews that bind civilized societies the world over. Without libraries, I would be a pauper, intellectually and spiritually."

"Don't mark up the Library's copy, you fool! Librarians are Unprankable. They'll track you down! They have skills!"

"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."

"In my fool hardy youth, when my friends were dreaming of heroic deeds in the realms of engineering and law, finance and national politics, I dreamt of becoming a librarian."

"I have an unshaken conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable of utilizing them."[Letter to Herbert Putnam; in: Waters, Edward N.: Herbert Putnam: the tallest little man in the world; Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 33:2 (April 1976), p. 171]"

"Rule number one: Don't fuck with librarians."