That place that does contain
My books, the best companions, is to me
A glorious court, where read more

That place that does contain
My books, the best companions, is to me
A glorious court, where hourly I converse
With the old sages and philosophers;
And sometimes, for variety, I confer
With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels;
Calling their victories, if unjustly got,
Unto a strict account, and, in my fancy,
Deface their ill-placed statues.

A great library contains the diary of the human race.

A great library contains the diary of the human race.

A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of
shadows.

A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of
shadows.

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.

I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.

The first thing naturally when one enters a scholar's study or
library, is to look at his books. One read more

The first thing naturally when one enters a scholar's study or
library, is to look at his books. One gets a notion very
speedily of his tastes and the range of his pursuits by a glance
round his book-shelves.

All round the room my silent servants wait,
My friends in every season, bright and dim.

All round the room my silent servants wait,
My friends in every season, bright and dim.

The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history.

The library is the temple of learning, and learning has liberated more people than all the wars in history.

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

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

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),