A collection of good books, with a soul to it in the shape of a librarian, becomes a vitalized power among the impulses by which the world goes on to improvement.
quote by Justin Winsor

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The librarian must be the librarian militant before he can be the librarian triumphant.
quote by Melvil Dewey

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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In Hell
You live by the book of wonders,
The book has hell on it when opened.
The inferno carries pits too grilling,
The grills are offered by devils,
Contagious diseases are handed over
To the body and bones, full of hatred.
A hell of books is opened by the librarian,
You choose a simple verb to read,
Then this verb is read, the verb that signals death.
Your death must never come by reading books,
Long scrolls so wonderful,
Of books the world is made
And the reason for books is reading,
Not living in Hell.
poem by Naveed Akram

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We stand again at an inflection point. We have the opportunity to defeat despair and to build a nation of prosperity and purpose. We can do it. I know we can. I've long talked about the battle for the soul of America. We must restore the soul of America. Our nation is shaped by the constant battle between our better angels and our darkest impulses. It is time for our better angels to prevail. Tonight, the whole world is watching America. I believe at our best America is a beacon for the globe. And we lead not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.
quote by Joe Biden

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I have a good collection of cookery books. This is not so much because I like cooking, but because I like eating.
quote by Louise Brown

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My Canadian Chronicles 25
For Ray
My friend’s partner Ray
has a hobby
and his collection
has earned him a nickname from it.
He collects Buddha’s
as others would collect books.
A large collection he has
that now people call him
the Buddha man.
16 June 2009
poem by David Harris

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After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books.
quote by Albert Camus

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When you are writing, of course, you have to do all that writing and correcting for yourself. When I was a librarian it was expected that I would know about a wide range of books.
quote by Margaret Mahy

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Soul Power
though i need it
soul power
got to have it
soul power
though we want it
soul power
got to have it
soul power
give it to me
soul power
how you need it
soul power
though I need it
soul power
got to have it
soul power
I want to get under your skin
if I get there
I've got to
song performed by by Smashing Pumpkins from Machina II / Friends and Enemies of Modern Music

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I Know I Have A Copy Somewhere
Wherever you may choose to look
You're guaranteed to find a book.
Perhaps a murder mystery.
Anthologies of poetry
Reference books and picture books.
Books on witchcraft and black magic
Tomes on almost any topic.
Some by authors long since dead.
Books which try to look ahead.
Books of every shape and size.
As I have come to realise.
Enough to start a library
Though jumbled up haphazardly.
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg

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Well, first of all, I think that a lot of the voters who are voting for the tea party candidates have really good impulses. That is, they believe that for years and years and years, the people with wealth and power or government power have done well and ordinary people have not. That's true.
quote by Bill Clinton

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Jonathan Swift Somers
After you have enriched your soul
To the highest point,
With books, thought, suffering, the understanding of many personalities,
The power to interpret glances, silences,
The pauses in momentous transformations,
The genius of divination and prophecy;
So that you feel able at times to hold the world
In the hollow of your hand;
Then, if, by the crowding of so many powers
Into the compass of your soul,
Your soul takes fire,
And in the conflagration of your soul
The evil of the world is lighted up and made clear --
Be thankful if in that hour of supreme vision
Life does not fiddle.
poem by Edgar Lee Masters

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Anyway, in the mid 80's I was spending a fortune buying old Golden Age books from the late 30's and 40's and I was making personal appearances at a lot of sci fi and comic book conventions all around the country here so that I could find books for my collection.
Good Books
Good Books, Good Rhymes,
Good Stories, Good Times,
Good Beginings, Good Ends,
Good Tragic. Good Trends.
Good Fiction, Good Facts,
Good Adventures, Good Acts,
Good Characters, Good Thoughts,
Good Sense Of Humor, Good Soughts.
This Is Our Good Friends,
Which Have No Demand, No Complaints.
It Is Read By All Over-
From President To Cooks.
Really It Is Our
GOOD BOOKS………..
poem by Kaushal Saboo

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A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. So the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.
quote by Umberto Eco

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A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion.
quote by Umberto Eco

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There were a lot of adventure books for boys, historical novels by Kenneth Roberts, and whatever mystery novels the alarmed librarian imagined might not corrupt an eager but innocent youth.
quote by Peter Straub

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We must restore the soul of America. Our nation is shaped by the constant battle between our better angels and our darkest impulses. It is time for our better angels to prevail. Tonight, the whole world is watching America. I believe at our best America is a beacon for the globe. And we lead not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.... Now, together — on eagle's wings — we embark on the work that God and history have called upon us to do. With full hearts and steady hands, with faith in America and in each other, with a love of country — and a thirst for justice — let us be the nation that we know we can be. A nation united. A nation strengthened. A nation healed. The United States of America.
quote by Joe Biden

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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A Prayer
I pray, not for I love You
Nor either for I owe You
But I pray O Almighty One
- if at all You exist-
To relieve this world of crooked ones
If you canst, O, change me so
That I might in the shape of fire
Spread and destroy them all;
That I might in the shape of thunder
Strike them instantaneous death:
Give me any shape in which
I might rid this world of evil ones:
Or else, give me the power
That I might, in the poor, confidence inspire
That they might break the chains
And dispense justice unto themselves.
I beseech Thee O Thou mighty one
Give me such power for I can't see
The women looted of their honour
Hunger causing suicides
Lust driving men to madness
Love being denied.
I pray Thee O Thou Creator
Of this miserable world:
Rise from thy slumber and rid us
Of thy vicergents as wicked they be:
If Thou canst, make me so powerful
That I might do thy job. [1955]
The afterthought
The afterthought
~
The poetry section in the library, an afterthought
A little over fifteen books thrown onto a shelf
Amongst books of quotations and how to write
Books about books and sporting anecdotes
It seems poetry here is consigned to obscurity
A disappointing assessment of literature
A few of the named greats, a few anthologies
The favourite love poems, poems on war
A three quarter shelf collection if at all
Perhaps it’s a sign of the times changing
Modern life being unable to relate anymore
To the notions and thoughts of poetic lore
The pace picked up so long ago
The gentle stroll now a sprinting run
No more stopping to smell the air
The need to be someplace doing something
Everything else consigned to the shelf
Like a mirror reflecting the new world
The poetry of life has become an afterthought
poem by Matthew Holloway

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We are all ruled in what we do by impulses; and these impulses are so organized that our actions in general serve for our self preservation and that of the race.
quote by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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