“The library is not a shrine for the worship of books. It is not a temple where literary incense must be burned or where one's devotion to the bound book is expressed in ritual. A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas - a place where history comes to life.— Cited in ALA Bulletin, Oct. 1954, p.475”

“A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas - a place where history comes to life.”

“I need a sitting room where I can entertain my friends, but I must have a library where my books entertain me.”

“Come indoors then, and open the books on your library shelves. For you have a library and a good one. A working library, a living library; a library where nothing is chained down and nothing is locked up; a library where the songs of the singers rise naturally from the lives of the livers.”

“My idea of Hell is to be stuck in a library where all the books were authored by Marcel Proust.”

“Library. It's where we lock up all those books before they start giving kids ideas," I said solemnly. "Very dangerous place to be.”