In a library, the world opens — shelves become pathways, and stories take your hand. As Ralph Waldo Emerson mused: “In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends imprisoned by an enchanter in paper and leathern boxes.”

I go into my library and history rolls before me. ~ Alexander Smith

People can lose their lives in Libraries. They ought to be warned. ~ Saul Bellow

Libraries are not made, they grow. ~ Augustine Birrell

Meek young men grow up in libraries. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

My library was dukedom large enough. ~ William Shakespeare

When I discovered libraries, it was like having Christmas every day. ~ Jean Fritz

The library, I believe, is the last of our public institutions to which you can go without credentials. All you need is the willingness to read. ~ Harry Golden

A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge! It blossoms through the year! ~ Richard B. Sheridan

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. ~ Norman Cousins

Instead of going to Paris to attend lectures, go to the public library, and you won’t come out for twenty years, if you really wish to learn. ~ Leo Tolstoy

The library is the biggest cracker box factory in the world. The more you eat, the more you want. ~ Ray Bradbury

Libraries are community treasure chests, loaded with a wealth of information available to everyone equally, and the key to that treasure chest is the library card. I have found the most valuable thing in my wallet is my library card. ~ Laura Bush

I used to go to the library all the time when I was a kid. As a teenager, I got a book on how to write jokes at the library, and that, in turn, launched my comedy career. ~ Drew Carey

I had found my religion: nothing seemed to me more important than a book. I regarded the library as a temple. ~ Jean‑Paul Sartre