“His true monument lies not on the shelves of libraries, but in the thoughts of men, and in the history of more than one science.”

“The original of morals lies with the thought that ‘the community is more valuable than the individual”

“I lived in the royal library, among all the books."
"You resided in a… library?"
"Theresuites inside and great balconies that overlooked the city, but yes. I was most content among those shelves, so one night, I simply never left.”

“That it was common to observe that this was an enlightened Age; but he had thought it for a long time past an ignorant Age. Would you, said he, call a Circulating Library a good Library, because it contains so many books? This Age is much advanced in many useless sciences, & much more respect is shewn to Talent than to wisdom; but I consider our fore-fathers as deeper Thinkers than ourselves, because they set an higher Value on good sense than Knowledge in various Sciences, & this good sense was derived very often from as much study & more knowledge, though of another sort.”

“Myth is much more important and true than history. History is just journalism and you know how reliable that is.”

“Those only deserve a monument who do not need one; that is, who have raised themselves a monument in the minds and memories of men.”

“I have made a monument more lasting than bronze.”
Exegi monumentum aere perennius

“Nothing is more impotent than an unread library.”

“Man is more interesting than men. God made him and not them in his image. Each one is more precious than all.”

“The landed men are the true owners of our political vessel, the moneyed men are no more than passengers in it.”