A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them. – Mark Twain, 1894

I always imagined that Paradise would be a kind of library. – Jorge Luis Borges, translated from Spanish

Be a little careful about your library. Do you foresee what you will do with it? Very little to be sure. But the real question is, What it will do with you? – Ralph Waldo Emerson