It hardly matters why a library is destroyed: every banning, curtailment, shredding, plunder or loot gives rise (at least as a ghostly presence) to a louder, clearer, more durable library of the banned, looted, plundered, shredded or curtailed.

Alberto Manguel
About This Quote

Ever since libraries started to get used, more than two thousand years ago, they have been under constant threat. They are given up to be burned during riots or given to the people so they can take them home and read them. Librarians all over the world try to save their books, but unfortunately it’s not enough. Every time the threat of book burning comes back, it gives rise to a stronger library. Even when libraries are destroyed or damaged, it gives rise to a new library that is even more powerful.

Source: The Library At Night

Some Similar Quotes
  1. V-Day…if you need this one day in a year to show everyone else you truly care for “your loved one” I think it’s quite stupid. I hate this commercialism. It’s all artificial, and has nothing to do with real love. - Jess C. Scott
  2. There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it. - Shannon L. Alder
  3. My head’ll explode if I continue with this escapism. - Jess C. Scott
  4. I suppose it’s not a social norm, and not a manly thing to do – to feel, discuss feelings. So that’s what I’m giving the finger to. Social norms and stuff…what good are social norms, really? I think all they do is project a limited... - Jess C. Scott
  5. When male authors write love stories, the heroine tends to end up dead. - Susan Elizabeth Phillips
More Quotes By Alberto Manguel
  1. Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.
  2. As readers, we are seldom interested in the fine sentiments of a lesson learnt; we seldom care about the good manners of morals. Repentance puts an end to conversation; forgiveness becomes the stuff of moralistic tracts. Revenge - bloodthirsty, justice-hungry revenge - is the very...
  3. If justice takes place, there may be hope, even in the face of a seemingly capricious divinity.
  4. I like to imagine that, on the day after my last, my library and I will crumble together, so that even when I am no more I'll still be with my books.
  5. Unicorns, dragons, witches may be creatures conjured up in dreams, but on the page their needs, joys, anguishes, and redemptions should be just as true as those of Madame Bovary or Martin Chuzzlewit.
Related Topics