Jorge Luis Borges
Writer, Poet
"The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library . . . Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book."
Library quotes
Library
883 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Author, Poet, Essayist
"There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories."
Jean-Paul Sartre
Philosopher, Writer
"I had found my religion: nothing seemed more important to me than a book. I saw the library as a temple."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Military Leader, Politician
"Don't join the book burners!"
Malcolm X
Civil Rights Activist, Minister
"My alma mater was books, a good library."
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside library — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Library quotes (page 1 of 45)
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"My most prized possession was my library card from the Oakland Public Library."
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"Medical research in the twentieth century mostly takes place in the lab; in the Renaissance, though, researchers went first and foremost to the library to see what the ancients had said."
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"Fact is Our Lord knew all about the power of money: He gave capitalism a tiny niche in His scheme of things, He gave it a chance, He even provided a first installment of funds. Can you beat that? It's so magnificent. God despises nothing. After all, if the deal had come off, Judas would probably have endowed sanatoriums, hospitals, public libraries or laboratories."
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"Don't join the book burners... Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book."
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"When all else fails, give up and go to the library."
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"When I got [my] library card, that was when my life began."
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"If I have to spend time in purgatory before going to one place or the other, I guess I'll be all right as long as there's a lending library."
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"There are three things to leave behind; your photographs, your library, and your personal journals. These things are certainly going to be more valuable to future generations than your furniture!"
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"The very existence of libraries affords the best evidence that we may yet have hope for the future of man"
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"A library doesn't need windows. A library is a window."
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"Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one."
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"Ever since we had arrived in the United States, my classmates kept asking me about magic carpets. - They don't exist-I always said. I was wrong. Magic carpets do exist. But they are called library cards."
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"If peace had a smell,it would be the smell of a library full of old, leather-bound books."
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"What in the world would we do without our libraries?"
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"What we call imagination is actually the universal library of what's real. You couldn’t imagine it if it weren’t real somewhere, sometime."
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"Once you know what it is in life that you want to do, then the world basically becomes your library. Everything you view, you can view from that perspective, which makes everything a learning asset for you."
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"A friend of mine said to me a year ago, "You're so lucky, Nancy, because Ronnie left you the library," She said, "You have that to work on, and to go to, and, in a sense, to be with him." I had never thought of it like that, but it's true. I go to the library or work for the library all the time, because it's Ronnie. I'm working for Ronnie."
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"I can see he's not in your good books,' said the messenger. 'No, and if he were I would burn my library."
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"In my world there would be as many public libraries as there are Starbucks."
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"I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved."
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