Quotes from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“A great library doesn't have to be big or beautiful. It doesn't have to have the best facilities or the most efficient staff or the most users. A great library provides. It is enmeshed in the life of a community in a way that makes it indispensable. A great library is one nobody notices because it is always there, and always has what people need.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“That's life. We all go through the tractor blades now and then. We all get bruised, and we all get cut. Sometimes the blade cuts deep. The lucky ones come through with a few scratches, a little blood, but even that isn't the most important thing. The most important thing is having someone there to scoop you up, to hold you tight, and to tell you everything is all right.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“Books have survived television, radio, talking pictures, circulars (early magazines), dailies (early newspapers), Punch and Judy shows, and Shakespeare's plays. They have survived World War II, the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death, and the fall of the Roman Empire. They even survived the Dark Ages, when almost no one could read and each book had to be copied by hand. They aren't going to be killed off by the Internet.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“Everone has a pain thermometer that goes from zero to ten. No one will make a change until they reach ten. Nine won't do it. At nine you are still afraid. Only ten will move you, and when you're there, you'll know. No one can make that decision for you.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“And right then I realised that she was right. The good, the bad, that's just life. Let it go. There's no need to fret about the past. The question is: who are you going to share it with tomorrow?”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“For years, I thought I had done that for Dewey. I thought that was my story to tell. And I had done that. When Dewey was hurt, cold, and crying, I was there. I held him. I made sure everything was all right.
But that's only a sliver of the truth. The real truth is that for all those years, on the hard days, the good days, and all the unremembered days that make up the pages of the real book of our lives, Dewey was holding me.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“Until one morning, one of the coldest mornings of the year, when I came in with the book cart and found Jean Hollis Clark, a fellow librarian, standing dead still in the middle of the staff room.
"I heard a noise from the drop box," Jean said.
"What kind of noise?"
"I think it's an animal."
"A what?"
"An animal," Jean said. "I think there's an animal in the drop box."
That was when I heard it, a low rumble from under the metal cover. It didn't sound like an animal. It sounded like an old man clearing his throat.
Gurr-gug-gug. Gurr-gug-gug.
But the opening at the top of the chute was only a few inches wide, so that would be quite a squeeze for an old man. It had to be an animal. But what kind? I got down on my knees, reached over the lid, and hoped for a chipmunk.
What I got instead was a blast of freezing air. The night before, the temperature had reached minus fifteen degrees, and that didn't take into account the wind, which cut under your coat and squeezed your bones. And on that night, of all nights, someone had jammed a book into return slot, wedging it open. It was as cold in the box as it was outside, maybe colder, since the box was lined with metal. It was the kind of cold that made it almost painful to breathe.
I was still catching my breath, in fact, when I saw the kitten huddled in the front left corner of the box. It was tucked up in a little space underneath a book, so all I could see at first was its head. It looked grey in the shadows, almost like a little rock, and I could tell its fur was dirty and tangled. Carefully, I lifted the book. The kitten looked up at me, slowly and sadly, and for a second I looked straight into its huge golden eyes. The it lowered its head and sank back down into its hole.
At that moment, I lost every bone in my body and just melted.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“The world tends to recognize the unique and the loud, the rich and the self-serving, not those who do ordinary things extraordinarily well.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“Your insides tie themselves in knots, but your heart refuses to understand.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“Everybody ages. Eighty-year-olds don’t look like twenty-year-olds, and they shouldn’t. We live in a throwaway culture that stashes older people away and tries not to look at them.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“Like Dewey, I was lucky. I got to leave on my own terms. Find your place. Be happy with what you have. Treat everyone well. Live a good life. It isn’t about material things; it’s about love. And you can never anticipate love.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“If a deed is done, it’s time to move on.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“you can’t make people do what you know is right. They have to come to it on their own.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“The only thing we don’t know is the name of the boy who started the fire. Somebody knows it, of course, but a decision was made to keep the identity secret. The message: we’re a town. We’re in this together. Let’s not point a finger. Let’s fix the problem.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“Maybe the heartland isn't just the place in the middle of the country; maybe it's also the place in the middle of your chest.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“When cats don’t know something exists, it’s easy to keep them away. If they can’t get to something and it’s something they’ve made up their minds they want, it’s almost impossible. Cats aren’t lazy; they’ll put in the work to thwart even the best-laid plans.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“Money for the library? What’s that going to do? We need jobs, not books.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“The Wizard of Oz—over the rainbow where everything is in color and you have the power to do what you’ve always wanted and that power has always been with you if only you knew how to tap into it—came”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“Books have survived television, radio, talking pictures, circulars (early magazines), dailies (early newspapers), Punch and Judy shows, and Shakespeare’s plays. They have survived World War II, the Hundred Years’ War, the Black Death, and the fall of the Roman Empire. They even survived the Dark Ages, when almost no one could read and each book had to be copied by hand. They aren’t going to be killed off by the Internet.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“My real motivation, my real reason for picking myself up every morning and struggling on, was my daughter,”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“She needed me to be her mother, to teach by example. We didn’t have money, but we had each other.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“Dr. Charlene Bell, says everyone has a pain thermometer that goes from zero to ten. No one will make a change until they reach ten. Nine won’t do it. At nine, you are still afraid. Only ten will move you,”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

“A good librarian, though, digs deeper. What does your community value? Where has it been? How and why has it changed? And most important, where is it going? A good librarian develops a filter in the back of her brain to catch and process information.”
― Vicki Myron, quote from Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World

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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.