15 Thought-Provoking Library Quotes

What are your memories of visiting a library? Take a look through these library quotes of how wonderful other people see and feel about libraries.

Quotes about Libraries

I love libraries! Not just because I am a librarian, that only happened after 15 years of classroom teaching.

This was my library as a child. My sister and I would go every 3 weeks to choose the maximum number of books from this stately old home. It even had an art gallery inside. Very inspiring as a young child.

I am sure you have some wonderful memories of visiting a library, so I am sharing a round-up of library quotes that highlight their wonderfulness. Share your favourite library quotes with me on Instagram.

As a companion to these quotes, browse through this collection of picture books that celebrate librarians, libraries and all of us who visit these special spaces.

Library Quotes

1. Patricia McKissack

“The library was a doorway to freedom, to free thought. When you’re being taught, “you can’t, you can’t, you can’t” … the library says, “you can, you can, you can.” And I did.” Patricia McKissack

Response Questions
Why did Patricia McKissack see the library as a place of freedom and encouragement?
How do you fell about visiting a library?

2. Albert Einstein

“The only thing that you absolutely have to know, is the location of the library.” Albert Einstein

Response Questions
What does Einstein mean by this?
What does knowing you can access a library mean to you?

3. Harold Howe

“What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it feels about education.” Harold Howe

Response Questions
Why do you think a school library is important?
How has/does a school library affect you?

4. Russell T. Davies

“You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world!” Russell T. Davies

Response Questions
Why does Russel Davies refer to books as weapons?

5. Pat Conroy

“A library could show you everything if you knew where to look.” Pat Conroy

Response Questions
Do you agree with this quote? Why?

6. Eleanor Crumblehulme

“Cutting libraries during a recession is like cutting hospitals during a plague.” Eleanor Crumblehulme

Response Questions
What does this quote mean?

7. Jo Godwin

“A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.” Jo Godwin

Response Questions
Why would resources in a library offend some people?

8. Gail Carson Levine

“A library is infinity under a roof.” Gail Carson Levine

Response Questions
Why do you think Levine described what is in a library as infinity?

9. Jorge Luis Borges

“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” Jorge Luis Borges

Response Questions
What is the meaning of this quote?

10. Jamie Ford

“The library is like a candy store where everything is free.” Jamie Ford

Response Questions
How would you describe a library? Why?

11. Cornelia Funke

“If I was a book, I would like to be a library book, so I would be taken home by all different sorts of kids.” Cornelia Funke

Response Questions
What kind of book would like to be? Why?

12. Virginia Woolf

“I ransack public libraries, and find them full of sunk treasure.” Virginia Woolf

Response Questions
What kinds of treasure have you found in a library?

13. Ray Bradbury

“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.” Ray Bradbury

Response Questions
How would you answer Ray Bradley’s question?

14. Barack Obama

“At the dawn of the 21st century, where knowledge is literally power, where it unlocks the gates of opportunity and success, we all have responsibilities as parents, as librarians, as educators, as politicians, and as citizens to instil in our children a love of reading so that we can give them a chance to fulfil their dreams.” Barack Obama

Response Questions
Explain this quote from Obama and how it relates to your own experiences.

15. Stuart Dybek

“The public library is where place and possibility meet.” Stuart Dybek

Response Questions
What does Dybek mean by this quote?
Could it also relate to a school library? Explain your answer

What Next?

Think about how you can use these library quotes in your classroom. This post is about using them as discussion starters, but you can also use quotes:

as writing prompts
as part of a motivational display
to inspire art or craft projects
make a tag cloud to analyse the most common words
to compare and contrast to explore similarities
What do you think of using quotes in your classroom? How would use them to inspire your students?

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