#aria

Convinced that their own ideas were the key to the future of the world, that the fate of humanity rested on the outcome of their own doctrinal struggles, the Russian intelligentsia divided up the world into the forces of 'progress' and 'reaction', friends and enemies of the people's cause, leaving no room for doubters in between. Here were the origins of the totalitarian world-view. Although neither would have liked to admit it, there was much in common between Lenin and Tolstoy. ↗

— Orlando Figes

#tolstoy #totalitarianism

Despotic governments can stand 'moral force' till the cows come home; what they fear is physical force. ↗

— George Orwell

#dictatorship #interventionism #pacifism #totalitarianism #war

As a child, my number one best friend was the librarian in my grade school. I actually believed all those books belonged to her. ↗

— Erma Bombeck

#librarians

Mr. Powell raised an eyebrow. 'I'm a librarian,' he said. 'I always know what I'm talking about. ↗

— Gary D. Schmidt

#librarians

Of course it's alright for librarians to smell of drink. ↗

— Barbara Pym

#librarians

She was brilliant and joyous and she believed- probably correctly- that libraries contain the answers to all things, to everything, and that if you can't find the information you seek in the library, then such information probably doesn't exist in this or any parallel universe now or ever to be known. She was thoughtful and kind and she always believed the best of everybody. She was, above all else, a master librarian and she knew where to find any book on any subject in the shortest possible time. And she was wonderfully unhinged. ↗

— Gary Paulsen

#libraries #librarians

To Homer, libraries were holy places like churches, and the priestly librarians a blessed race, a saving remnant in a world of sin. Whenever God grew impatient and decided to destroy the world he remembered the librarians and stayed his hand. ↗

— Jane Langton

#librarians

We'll always need printed books that don't mutate the way digital books do; we'll always need places to display books, auditoriums for book talks, circles for story time; we'll always need brick-and-mortar libraries. ↗

— Marilyn Johnson

#libraries #library #librarians

Libraries are like houses of worship: Whether or not you use them yourself, it's important to know that they are there. In many ways they define a society and the values of that society. Librarians to me are the keepers of the flame of knowledge. When I was growing up, the librarian in my local library looked like a meek little old lady, but after you spent some time with her, you realized she was Athena with a sword, a wise and wonderful repository of wisdom. ↗

— Jane Stanton Hitchcock

#librarians

We don’t have to destroy the library of the past. We just need to give it a face-lift. ↗

— Scott Douglas

#library #library-books #quiet-please #librarians