I am a quote junkie. It started when I was a teenager, music was my gateway and I found myself filling composition books with song lyrics and posting index cards on my bedroom mirror. I try to control my habit now, but mostly I just hide it...I tuck quotes into my wallet, slide them under my desk blotter and slide them under my socks - usually I never look at them again, but the act of saving them seems to preserve them somewhere in my memory. Lately, I have been emailing inspirational quotes to myself, pathetic, I know but, like I said, I have a problem and I’m not proud of it.
By lovely coincidence I came across a book called The Librarian’s Book of Quotes by Tanya Eckstrand. Perfect, I thought, now I can feed my addiction with an obsession. Since my sock draw is full, I’m putting some favorites, from the book and elsewhere, to enjoy and maybe I’ll even come back and read them, although I doubt it. However, I will go back to learn more about the wise souls who offered these words of wisdom on my next rainy dat...
Robert S. Martin: “America's libraries are the fruits of a great democracy. They exist because we believe that memory and truth are important. They exist because we believe that information and knowledge are not the exclusive domain of a certain type or class of person, but rather the province of all who seek to learn. A democratic society holds these institutions in high regard.”
Peter Golkin: “My two favorite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to the library.”
William A.E. Axon: “Every man should have a library....And when we have got our little library we may look proudly at Shakspeare, and Bacon, and Bunyan, as they stand in our bookcase in company with other noble spirits, and one or two of whom the world knows nothing, but whose worth we have often tested. These may cheer and enlighten us, may inspire us with higher aims and aspirations, may make us, if we use them rightly, wiser and better men. “
James Crossley: “It is impossible to enter a large library... without feeling an inward sensation of reverence, and without catching some sparks of noble emulation, from the mass of mind which is scattered around you.”
“Medicine for the soul” - Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes
Herbet Samuel: “A library is thought in cold storage.”
Jan Morris: “Book lovers will understand me, and they will know too, that part of the pleasure of a library lies in its very existence.”
Andrew Carnegie also had a little bit of a problem when it came to quotes, although at the time it was still acceptable to be inspired by quotations. His libraries often had quotes etched into the stone. Over the door of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh were the words, “Free to the People” - the foundation of his belief about libraries. But the undeniably best quotation is, fittingly, at Carnegie’s hometown library in Dunfermline, Scotland. These are the words that politicians should be reminded of as they slash budgets and close libraries across the country. Above the sunburst at the entrance the to library are the simple words: “Let there be light”.
By lovely coincidence I came across a book called The Librarian’s Book of Quotes by Tanya Eckstrand. Perfect, I thought, now I can feed my addiction with an obsession. Since my sock draw is full, I’m putting some favorites, from the book and elsewhere, to enjoy and maybe I’ll even come back and read them, although I doubt it. However, I will go back to learn more about the wise souls who offered these words of wisdom on my next rainy dat...
Robert S. Martin: “America's libraries are the fruits of a great democracy. They exist because we believe that memory and truth are important. They exist because we believe that information and knowledge are not the exclusive domain of a certain type or class of person, but rather the province of all who seek to learn. A democratic society holds these institutions in high regard.”
Peter Golkin: “My two favorite things in life are libraries and bicycles. They both move people forward without wasting anything. The perfect day: riding a bike to the library.”
William A.E. Axon: “Every man should have a library....And when we have got our little library we may look proudly at Shakspeare, and Bacon, and Bunyan, as they stand in our bookcase in company with other noble spirits, and one or two of whom the world knows nothing, but whose worth we have often tested. These may cheer and enlighten us, may inspire us with higher aims and aspirations, may make us, if we use them rightly, wiser and better men. “
James Crossley: “It is impossible to enter a large library... without feeling an inward sensation of reverence, and without catching some sparks of noble emulation, from the mass of mind which is scattered around you.”
“Medicine for the soul” - Inscription over the door of the Library at Thebes
Herbet Samuel: “A library is thought in cold storage.”
Jan Morris: “Book lovers will understand me, and they will know too, that part of the pleasure of a library lies in its very existence.”
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| from Wikipedia |
Andrew Carnegie also had a little bit of a problem when it came to quotes, although at the time it was still acceptable to be inspired by quotations. His libraries often had quotes etched into the stone. Over the door of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh were the words, “Free to the People” - the foundation of his belief about libraries. But the undeniably best quotation is, fittingly, at Carnegie’s hometown library in Dunfermline, Scotland. These are the words that politicians should be reminded of as they slash budgets and close libraries across the country. Above the sunburst at the entrance the to library are the simple words: “Let there be light”.
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