Nutrimentum spiritus (food for the soul). – Berlin Royal Library, inscription

Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books. Hence, instead of Man Thinking, we have the book-worm. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The student has his Rome, his Florence, his whole glowing Italy, within the four walls of his library. He has in his books the ruins of an antique world and the glories of a modern one. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

What is more important in a library than anything else – than everything else – is the fact that it exists. – Archibald MacLeish, "The Premise of Meaning," American Scholar, 5 June 1