You May Also Like / View all maxioms
 It is a vanity to persuade the world one hath much learning, by 
getting a great library.  
 It is a vanity to persuade the world one hath much learning, by 
getting a great library. 
The richest minds need not large libraries.
The richest minds need not large libraries.
 Food for the soul.
 [Lat., Nutrimentum spiritus.]  
 Food for the soul.
 [Lat., Nutrimentum spiritus.] 
Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.
Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.
 'Tis well to borrow from the good and the great;
 'Tis wise to learn: 'tis God-like to create!  
 'Tis well to borrow from the good and the great;
 'Tis wise to learn: 'tis God-like to create! 
 What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though all 
the souls of all read more 
 What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though all 
the souls of all the writers that have bequeathed their labours 
to these Bodleians were reposing here as in some dormitory, or 
middle state. I do not want to handle, to profane the leaves, 
their winding-sheets. I could as soon dislodge a shade. I seem 
to inhale learning, walking amid their foliage; and the odor of 
their old moth-scented coverings is fragrant as the first bloom 
of those sciential apples which grew amid the happy orchard.
   - Charles Lamb (used pseudonym Elia), 
A library implies an act of faith
A library implies an act of faith
 Some book there is that she desires to see.
 Which is it, girl, of these? Open them, boy.
 read more 
 Some book there is that she desires to see.
 Which is it, girl, of these? Open them, boy.
  But thou art deeper read and better skilled:
   Come and take choice of all my library,
    And so beguile thy sorrow, till the heavens
     Reveal the damned contriver of this deed. 
 A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of 
diabolical knowledge.  
 A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of 
diabolical knowledge.