“Push words.Pull light. Carry balm.”

“Unless you are silent, you will notknow your urgent heart, how it beatsbetween the thin skin of yes and no.”

“If good stuff happened to us until we died it wouldn't be called Life. It would be called Great.”

“Old lady Patterson is a real tightwad.” Raising his voice so it would carry, the man continued, “If she stuck a lump of coal up her ass, within a week she’d shit out a diamond.”

“A great library doesn't have to be big or beautiful. It doesn't have to have the best facilities or the most efficient staff or the most users. A great library provides. It is enmeshed in the life of a community in a way that makes it indispensable. A great library is one nobody notices because it is always there, and always has what people need.”

“Books have survived television, radio, talking pictures, circulars (early magazines), dailies (early newspapers), Punch and Judy shows, and Shakespeare's plays. They have survived World War II, the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death, and the fall of the Roman Empire. They even survived the Dark Ages, when almost no one could read and each book had to be copied by hand. They aren't going to be killed off by the Internet.”

“Morgens schlief Dewey neben einer Kiste voller Karteikarten und hatte nur eine Pfote hineingestellt. Vielleicht hatte es Stunden gedauert, bis er widerwillig eingesehen hatte,dass mehr von ihm keinen Platz darin fand.”