Jeanette Winterson Quotes

We overvalue the arts in relation to the sciences.

A library represents the mind of its collector, fancies and foibles, strengths and weaknesses, prejudices and preferences.

In my view, investing in public libraries is an investment in the nation's future.

A picture's worth a thousand words? A library card's worth millions.

The liberation of the human mind has never been furthered by dunderheads.

The library is central to our free society. It is a critical element in the free exchange of information at the heart of our democracy.

One of the most subversive institutions in the United States is the public library.

Once you figure out something about the watershed, you'll find out where the schools are going to hell, and the kids aren't learning, and there is no money. Social issues, class issues, and environmental issues were all connected.

The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind

Go anywhere you wish, talk to everyone. Ask any questions; you will be given answers. When you want to learn, you will be taught. Use the library. Open any book.

Philosophy means the complete liberty of the mind.

Libraries are fun, educational, and the biggest bargain on the face of the earth.

I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, and which does not cower to human opinion: Which refuses to be the slave or tool of the many or of the few, and guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.

The detective story is the normal recreation of noble minds.

Pleasures of the mind have this advantage,--they never cloy nor wear themselves out, but increase by employment.

O ye! who teach the ingenious youth of nations, Holland, France, England, Germany or Spain, I pray ye flog them upon all occasions, It mends their morals, never mind the pain.

As long as a man had the courage to reject what society told him to do, he could live life on his own terms. To what end? To be free. But free to what end? To read books, to write books, to think.

Shake off all the fears and servile prejudices under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear... Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable not for the rightness but uprightness of the decision.

A library is a place where you learn what teachers were afraid to teach you.

The library is a place of mental diversion, learning, and comfort for anyone who has an intellect. I know of no librarian who when asked for food for the mind will offer a stone. What more could anyone ask?

If information is the currency of democracy, then libraries are its banks.

Writing enlarges the landscape of the mind.

Here you discover that so long as books are kept open, then minds can never be closed.

Cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy.

In the future, how we educate our children may prove to be more important than how much we educate them.