WIST Quotations

L'Engle, Madeleine -- Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Dave — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:16:46 +0000

I am very wary of those individuals who are neither writers nor editors nor even, in some cases, readers, who feel that they have the right to apply their own moral criteria to the books in public and school libraries. I have enormous respect and admiration and love for the librarians who are rising up to protest this, because they are putting their very jobs on the line.

Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
(Source)

Sagan, Carl -- Cosmos, ep. 13 “Who Speaks for Earth?” PBS TV (1980)

Dave — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:18:18 +0000

History is full of people who out of fear, or ignorance, or lust for power have destroyed treasures of immeasurable value which truly belong to us all. We must not let that happen again.

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
Cosmos, ep. 13 “Who Speaks for Earth?” PBS TV (1980)
(Source)

(Source (Video); dialog verified). Referring to the destruction of the Library at Alexandria. This text is not in the Cosmos book (it would fit in roughly here).

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Lecture (1877-06-23), “The Ghosts,” Carson Theater, Carson City, Nevada

Dave — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 22:43:38 +0000

Education is the most radical thing in the world.
To teach the alphabet is to inaugurate a revolution.
To build a schoolhouse is to construct a fort.
Every library is an arsenal filled with the weapons and ammunition of Progress, and every fact is a monitor with sides of iron and a turret of steel.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1877-06-23), “The Ghosts,” Carson Theater, Carson City, Nevada
(Source)

Collected in The Ghosts, and Other Lectures (1878)

McCracken, Elizabeth -- The Giant’s House [Peggy] (1997)

Dave — Mon, 08 Jul 2024 22:57:36 +0000

Library books were, I suddenly realized, promiscuous, ready to lie in the arms of anyone who asked. Not like bookstore books, which married their purchasers, or were brokered for marriages to others.

Elizabeth McCracken (b. 1966) American author
The Giant’s House [Peggy] (1997)
(Source)

Macdonald, Ross -- The Chill, ch. 8 (Lew Archer) (1963)

Dave — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 14:55:08 +0000

The walls of books around me, dense with the past, formed a kind of insulation against the present world and its dangers. I hated to get up.

Ross Macdonald (1915-1983) American-Canadian author [pseud. of Kenneth Millar]
The Chill, ch. 8 (Lew Archer) (1963)
(Source)

Often misquoted in the third person ("The walls of books around him ...")

Dirda, Michael -- Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life, ch. 8 (2005)

Dave — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 15:35:31 +0000

The world is a library of strange and wonderful books, and sometimes we just need to go prowling through the stacks.

Michael Dirda (b. 1948) American book critic
Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life, ch. 8 (2005)
(Source)

Sagan, Carl -- Cosmos, ch. 11 “The Persistence of Memory” (1980)

Dave — Tue, 03 Jan 2023 19:10:27 +0000

I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture, and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries.

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
Cosmos, ch. 11 “The Persistence of Memory” (1980)
(Source)

Zelazny, Roger -- Nine Princes in Amber, ch. 3 (1977)

Dave — Wed, 19 Jan 2022 15:46:46 +0000

Besides, I like libraries. It makes me feel comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me. I always feel better when I can see that there is something to hold back the shadows.

Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) American writer
Nine Princes in Amber, ch. 3 (1977)
(Source)

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Epistulae ad Familiares [Letters to Friends], Book 9, Letter 4, sec. 1 (9.4.1), to Marcus Terentius Varro (46 BC) [tr. Williams (Loeb) (1928)]

Dave — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 20:55:09 +0000

If you have a garden in your library, we shall have all we want.

[Si hortum in bibliotheca habes, deerit nihil.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Familiares [Letters to Friends], Book 9, Letter 4, sec. 1 (9.4.1), to Marcus Terentius Varro (46 BC) [tr. Williams (Loeb) (1928)]
(Source)

In context, this is about Cicero discussing visiting Varro, and that he'll be happy to do so if the latter has a garden and a library, either to provide for body (vegetables) and mind, or else a garden library to have a pleasant place to think and talk during his visit.

The phrase, out of context and in more popular usage, changes the pronouns a bit, and is usually presented as a broad suggestion that all a person needs at their house to meet their mental and emotional needs is a garden and a library, e.g., the ubiquitous "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Let there be a garden in your Librarie, it is no matter for the rest.
[tr. Webbe (1620)]

As your library is situated in your garden, I shall want nothing to complete my two favorite amusements; reading and walking.
[tr. Melmoth (1753), 8.14]

If you have a garden in your library, everything will be complete.
[tr. Shuckburgh (1899), # 464]

If you have a kitchen garden in your library we shall lack for nothing.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1978), # 180]

If you have a garden in your library, you’ve got it all.
[tr. @sentantiq (2011)]

Doyle, Arthur Conan -- “The Five Orange Pips,” The Strand (Nov 1891)

Dave — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 20:27:29 +0000

A man should keep his little brain-attic stocked with all the furniture that he is likely to use, and the rest he can put away in the lumber-room of his library, where he can get it if he wants it.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
“The Five Orange Pips,” The Strand (Nov 1891)
(Source)

Whitman, Walt -- Leaves of Grass, Preface (1855)

Dave — Thu, 09 Jan 2020 21:42:58 +0000

The owner of the library is not he who holds a legal title to it, having bought and paid for it. Anyone and everyone is owner of the library who can read the same through all the varieties of tongues and subjects and styles, and in whom they enter with ease and take residence and force toward paternity and maternity, and make supple and powerful and rich and large.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet
Leaves of Grass, Preface (1855)
(Source)

Reprinted on the wall of Atlantis Books, Oia, Santorini, Greece.

Smith, Sydney -- Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 9 (1855)

Dave — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:35:53 +0000

No furniture so charming as books, even if you never open them or read a single word.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 9 (1855)
(Source)

See also Beecher.

Schopenhauer, Arthur -- Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2, ch. 21 “On Learning and the Learned [Über Gelehrsamkeit und Gelharte],” § 254 (1851) [tr. Saunders (1890)]

Dave — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 16:00:53 +0000

Of human knowledge as a whole and in every branch of it, by far the largest part exists nowhere but on paper, — I mean, in books, that paper memory of mankind.

[Von dem menschlichen Wissen überhaupt, in jeder Art, existirt der allergrößte Theil stets nur auf dem Papier, in den Büchern, diesem papiernen Gedächtniß der Menschheit.]

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher
Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2, ch. 21 “On Learning and the Learned [Über Gelehrsamkeit und Gelharte],” § 254 (1851) [tr. Saunders (1890)]
(Source)

(Source (German)). Alternate translation:

Of human knowledge in general and in every branch thereof, by far the greatest part exists always only on paper, in books, this paper-memory of mankind.
[tr. Payne (1974)]

Rice, Anne -- The Witching Hour, Part 2 (1990)

Dave — Thu, 07 Sep 2017 15:45:22 +0000

Ah, Stefan, give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and you give me a dangerous enemy indeed.

Anne Rice (b. 1941) American author [b. Howard Allen Frances O'Brien]
The Witching Hour, Part 2 (1990)
(Source)

Lobel, Arnold -- The Fiction Magazine, Vol. 5 (1986)

Dave — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 23:47:59 +0000

Books to the ceiling, books to the sky.
My pile of books are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.

Arnold Lobel (1933-1987) American author, illustrator
The Fiction Magazine, Vol. 5 (1986)
(Source)

Lincoln, Abraham -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 25 May 2017 22:56:43 +0000

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new after all.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)
(Source)

Recounted in the Pennsylvania School Journal, Vol. 46, #7 (Jan 1898) as an anecdote from a clergyman printed in the New York Tribune.

L'Amour, Louis -- The Sackett Companion (1988)

Dave — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 15:31:10 +0000

The book has been man’s greatest triumph. Seated in my library, I live in a Time Machine. In an instant I can be transmitted to any era, any part of the world, even to outer space. I have lived in every period of history. I have listened to Buddha speak, marched with Alexander, sailed with the Vikings, ridden in canoes with the Polynesians. I have been at the courts of Queen Elizabeth and Louis XIV; I have been a friend to Captain Nemo and have sailed with Captain Bligh on the Bounty. I have walked in the agora with Socrates and Plato, and listened to Jesus deliver the Sermon on the Mount.

Best of all, I can do it all again, at any moment. The books are there. I have only to reach up to the shelves and take them down to relive the moments I have loved.

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) American writer
The Sackett Companion (1988)
(Source)

Hugo, Victor -- Toilers of the Sea, Book 1, ch. 4 (1866)

Dave — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 02:42:21 +0000

It is just those books which a man possesses, but does not read, which constitute the most suspicious evidence against him.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Toilers of the Sea, Book 1, ch. 4 (1866)

Fuller, Margaret -- Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)

Dave — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 03:42:44 +0000

A house is no home unless it contain food and fire for the mind as well as for the body.

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) American journalist, critic, transcendentalist, reformer [Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli]
Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845)

Verne, Jules -- Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)

Dave — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 22:33:26 +0000

We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.

Jules Verne (1828-1905) French novelist, poet, playwright
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)
(Source)

Erasmus, Desiderius -- The Adages, “Make Haste Slowly [Festina Lente]” (1508 ed.)

Dave — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 03:12:03 +0000

Consider as well that, however one may sing the praises of those who by their virtue either defend or increase the glory of their country, their actions only affect worldly prosperity, and within narrow limits. But the man who sets fallen learning on its feet (and this is almost more difficult than to originate it in the first place) is building up a sacred and immortal thing, and serving not one province alone but all peoples and all generations. Once this was the task of princes, and it was the greatest glory of Ptolemy. But his library was contained between the narrow walls of its own house, and Aldus is building up a library which has no other limits than the world itself.

Desiderius Erasmus (1465-1536) Dutch humanist philosopher and scholar
The Adages, “Make Haste Slowly [Festina Lente]” (1508 ed.)
(Source)

Discussing the Aldine Press, the first modern publishing house. In Margaret Mann Phillips, ed., Erasmus on His Times (1967).

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Books,” Society and Solitude (1870)

Dave — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 02:17:14 +0000

Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library. A company of the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out of all civil countries, in a thousand years, have set in best order the results of their learning and wisdom. The men themselves were hid and inaccessible, solitary, impatient of interruption, fenced by etiquette; but the thought which they did not uncover to their bosom friend is here written out in transparent words to us, the strangers of another age.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Books,” Society and Solitude (1870)

Buck, Pearl S. -- “In Search of Readers,” in Helen Hull, The Writer’s Book (1950)

Dave — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 14:03:54 +0000

There are persons who honestly do not see the use of books in the home, either for information — have they not radio and even television? — or for decoration — is there not the wallpaper?

Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973) American writer
“In Search of Readers,” in Helen Hull, The Writer’s Book (1950)

Bierce, Ambrose -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 13:33:28 +0000

The covers of this book are too far apart.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
(Attributed)

One-sentence book review. First attributed to Bierce in 1923, but showing up in anonymous humor as early as 1899. See here for more information.

Beecher, Henry Ward -- “The Duty of Owning Books” (1859), Eyes and Ears (1862)

Dave — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 13:35:32 +0000

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
“The Duty of Owning Books” (1859), Eyes and Ears (1862)
(Source)

The collection of essays is from articles originally printed in the New York Ledger or Independent. This essay was reprinted in several other newspapers in the spring and summer of 1859.

See Sydney Smith.

Umar I -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 16:13:46 +0000

If these writings of the Greeks agree with the book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed.

Umar I (c. 583-644) Arab caliph, jurist [Omar, Umar ibn Al-Khattāb, Al-Farooq]
(Attributed)

Ordering the burning of the Library of Alexandria in AD 641, as quoted in Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88). The story is generally considered spurious. More discussion here. Alt. trans.: "They will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, so they are superfluous"

Carnegie, Andrew -- An American Four-in-hand in Britain (1883)

Dave — Fri, 18 Dec 2015 16:38:53 +0000

Whatever agencies for good may rise or fall in the future, it seems certain that the Free Library is destined to stand and become a never-ceasing foundation of good to all the inhabitants.

Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) American industrialist and philanthropist
An American Four-in-hand in Britain (1883)

Tuchman, Barbara -- “The Houses of Research,” Authors Guild Bulletin (Mar 1972)

Dave — Tue, 26 May 2015 12:48:15 +0000

To a historian, libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.

Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author
“The Houses of Research,” Authors Guild Bulletin (Mar 1972)
(Source)

Tuchman, Barbara -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 05 May 2015 13:20:18 +0000

Nothing sickens me more than the closed door of a library.

Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author
(Attributed)

Tuchman, Barbara -- “The Book,” Lecture, Library of Congress (1979-10-17)

Dave — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 12:37:07 +0000

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature, dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. Without books, the development of civilization would have been impossible. The are engines of change (as the poet said), windows on the world, and lighthouses erected in the sea of time. They are companions, teachers, magicians, bankers of the treasures of the mind. Books are humanity in print.

Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author
“The Book,” Lecture, Library of Congress (1979-10-17)
(Source)

Reprinted in Authors' League Bulletin (1979-11/12) and as "Papyrus to Paperbacks: The World That Books Made," Washington Post (1979-12-30).

Woolf, Virginia -- A Room of One’s Own, ch. 4 (1929)

Dave — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 12:50:06 +0000

Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) English modernist writer [b. Adeline Virginia Stephen]
A Room of One’s Own, ch. 4 (1929)
(Source)

Joubert, Joseph -- Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 18 “Du Siècle [On the Age],” ¶ 57 (1850 ed.) [tr. Auster (1983), 1808]

Dave — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 14:29:50 +0000

The great inconvenience of new books is that they prevent us from reading the old ones.

[C’est le grand inconvénient des livres nouveaux: ils nous empêchent de lire les anciens.]

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 18 “Du Siècle [On the Age],” ¶ 57 (1850 ed.) [tr. Auster (1983), 1808]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

The great drawback in new books is that they prevent our reading older ones.
[tr. Attwell (1896), ¶ 250]

That is the great drawback of new books: they keep us from reading the old.
[tr. Collins (1928), ch. 17]

Shakespeare, William -- Tempest, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 130ff (1.2.130-131) (1611)

Dave — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:25:39 +0000

PROSPERO:My library
Was dukedom large enough.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Tempest, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 130ff (1.2.130-131) (1611)
(Source)

Quindlen, Anna -- Article (1991-08-07), “Public & Private: Enough Bookshelves,” New York Times

Dave — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:01:35 +0000

If being a parent consists often of passing along chunks of ourselves to unwitting — often unwilling — recipients, then books are, for me, one of the simplest and most sure-fire ways of doing that. I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.

Anna Quindlen (b. 1953) American journalist, novelist
Article (1991-08-07), “Public & Private: Enough Bookshelves,” New York Times
(Source)

Reprinted in her essay collection Thinking Out Loud (1993).

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 4, Letter 8, sec. 2 (4.8.2) (56 BC) [tr. Winstedt (1912)]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Since Tyrannio has arranged my books, the house seems to have acquired a soul.

[Postea vero quam Tyrannio mini libros disposuit, mens addita videtur meis aedibus.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Epistulae ad Atticum [Letters to Atticus], Book 4, Letter 8, sec. 2 (4.8.2) (56 BC) [tr. Winstedt (1912)]
(Source)

This seems to be the origin of the popular (mis)quote from Cicero: "A room without books is like a body without a soul."

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translation:

Moreover, since Tyrannio has arranged my books for me, my house seems to have had a soul added to it.
[tr. Shuckburgh (1900)]

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1815-06-10) to John Adams

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

I cannot live without books.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1815-06-10) to John Adams
(Source)