Harvard Library Quotes & Sayings

I never read bad reviews about myself, because my friends invariably tell me about them. — Oscar Levant

To consider the school as a place where instruction is given is one point of view. But, to consider the school as a preparation for life is another. In the latter case, the school must satisfy all the needs of life. — Maria Montessori

One of the powerful functions of a library - any library - lies in its ability to take us away from worlds that are familiar and comfortable and into ones which we can neither predict nor control, to lead us down new roads whose contours and vistas provide us with new perspectives. Sometimes, if we are fortunate, those other worlds turn out to have more points of familiarity with our own than we had thought. Sometimes we make connections back to familiar territory and when we have returned, we do so supplied with new perspectives, which enrich our lives as scholars and enhance our role as teachers. Sometimes the experience takes us beyond our immediate lives as scholars and teachers, and the library produces this result particularly when it functions as the storehouse of memory, a treasury whose texts connect us through time to all humanity.
[Browsing in the Western Stacks, Harvard Library Bulletin NS 6(3): 27-33, 1995] — Richard F. Thomas

Writing is to copyediting what swimming is to pool maintenance. — Gary Corby

What could be lonelier than trying to communicate? — Denis Johnson

We are very excited with the roster of skaters that are coming. It's the first time New Jersey has been awarded an event of this caliber in the skating world. It's definitely important to the area because we hear all the time that there are not enough major sporting events in South Jersey. It's a great opportunity to have such an event. — Susan Ward

It's important to make clear to all the schools at Harvard the central role of the library. — Robert Darnton

Never had movement been such a burden. Never had a heart been so definite and big in her adolescent chest. — Markus Zusak

Wisdom is the art of being courageous and generous with the unknown. — John O'Donohue

Without the Eucharist, the Church simply does not exist. — Pope Benedict XVI

I remembered screaming then, screaming until my voice stopped. — Ivy Devlin

George Eastman, "My work is done why wait?" He then shot himself. — George Eastman

Tell him to live by yes and no - yes to everything good, no to everything bad. — William James

I hope we have American-topias. — Richard Benjamin

Who can ... guess how much industry and providence and affection we have caught from the pantomime of brutes? — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Out in the fog, weary, yet buoyant from the drinks, his mind dulled along with his aches and his energy returning, Tully was free of the sense of impending ordeal that had been with him for weeks. He felt whole, self-sufficient, felt his life had at last opened up and that now nothing stood between him and the future's infinite possibilities. — Leonard Gardner

As a journalist I'm comfortable doing library research, and I did a lot! I had a fellowship at Radcliff for a year which gave me access to the Harvard system. — Anita Diament

In 2002, Google began an ambitious project to digitize every book in the world. It was intended as a search project: type in a query, and Google would show you snippets. They asked university libraries for books, which they would scan for free. At Harvard we didn't permit them to take works under copyright, but other libraries gave them everything. — Robert Darnton

I have lectured at Town Hall N.Y., The Library of Congress, Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Wellesley, Columbia, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana State University, Colorado, Stanford, and scores of other places. — Paul Engle

Nothing in this world, is completely new. That's why we study history and compare today, with the past. In the end, every human being, has the same way of thinking. — Da Xia