The Librarian of Burned Books

I can tell you that banning books, burning books, blocking books is often used as a way to erase people, a belief system, or culture.

The men who sought violence didn't understand that while swords could destroy bodies, a pen could destroy a nation.

There are moments in life when you have to put what is right over what party you vote for. And if you can’t recognize those moments when the stakes are low—let me assure you, you won’t recognize them when the stakes are high. Thank you.

Books are a way we leave a mark on the world, aren’t they? They say we were here, we loved and we grieved and we laughed and we made mistakes and we existed. They can be burned halfway across the world, but the words cannot be unread, the stories cannot be untold. They do live on in this library, but more importantly they are immortalized in anyone who has read them.

Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.

Burning books about things you do not like or understand does not mean those things no longer exist.

can tell you that banning books, burning books, blocking books is often used as a way to erase a people, a belief system, a culture,” Hannah said. “To say these voices don’t belong here, even when those writers represent the very best of a country. “I can

History is built on moments that feel insignificant,

Few people have to watch their country die,” Hannah said, her lyrical voice all the more captivating because she spoke softly. Althea found herself leaning toward her, and she imagined the rest of the audience was no different. “I have had that dubious privilege, and I can tell you that it comes not as a rebel shout but as a sly whisper. The cracks creep in, insidious as anything I’ve ever seen. It can start with rumblings about an unreliable press and rumors about political enemies that will threaten your family, your children. It can deepen with each disdainful remark about science and art and literature in a pub on a Friday night. It comes cloaked in patriotism and love of country, and uses that as armor against any criticism.

The way to judge people wasn't to look at how they acted toward people they wanted to impress; it was to look at the way they treated those who could do nothing for them.

When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue—you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humor and ships at sea by night—there’s all heaven and earth in a book.

The way to judge people wasn’t to look at how they acted toward people they wanted to impress; it was to look at the way they treated those who could do nothing for them.

p. 369 An attack on books, on rationality, on knowledge isn't a tempest in a teacup, but rather a canary dead in a coal mine.

All Hitler had to do was make people afraid: There is a monster out there who will attack you if you don’t let me protect you.” “And if that requires sacrificing a few freedoms, then that’s the price for law and order, isn’t it?

History is built on moments that feel insignificant

It is not failure we should fear but inaction.

The time and distance that came with history had a way of letting people forget.

This wasn’t just some pointless rally, this wasn’t just people whipped up into a frothing roar because of mostly empty words spoken by a strong orator. This was the gleeful destruction of knowledge, of science, of poetry, of love. The students who should have cherished such things were giddy as they watched all of it burn.

The good fight isn’t always about winning. Sometimes it’s a reminder to the world that there are people out there who are willing to try.

an attack on books, on rationality, on knowledge isn’t a tempest in a teacup, but rather a canary dead in a coal mine. “There are moments in life when you have to put what is right over what party you vote for. And if you can’t recognize those moments when the stakes are low—let me assure you, you won’t recognize them when the stakes are high. Thank you.

I think sometimes people get so caught up in the literary prestige of a novel...the idea that reading should be fun is lost.

If Althea had a church, it was within the covers of books; if she had a religion, it was in the words written there.

She had truly thought that if she did the right thing, if she fought the valiant fight, she could be redeemed. But redemption had never lived in one single moment. It lived in a thousand of them.

The cracks creep in, insidious as anything I’ve ever seen. It can start with rumblings about an unreliable press and rumors about political enemies that will threaten your family, your children. It can deepen with each disdainful remark about science and art and literature in a pub on a Friday night. It comes cloaked in patriotism and love of country, and uses that as armor against any criticism.

Books are a way we leave a mark on the world, aren't they? They say we were here, we loved and we grieved and we laughed and we made mistakes and we existed. They can be burned halfway across the world, but words cannot be unread, stories cannot be untold.

Cervantes, then?” He paused, clearly thinking. And then quoted, “‘When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?  . . . Too much sanity may be madness—and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!’?

she’ll start to think of herself as something other than a political pawn.” “She still would be one, of course. But”—Viv shook her head—“maybe she would realize that’s not all she is.