Alberto Manguel quotes - page 2

The shelves of books we haven't written, like those of books we haven't read, stretches out into the darkness of the universal library's farthest space. We are always at the beginning of the beginning of the letter A. (Alberto Manguel)
The American psychologist Julian Jaynes, in a controversial study on the origin of consciousness, argued that the bicameral mind - in which one of the hemispheres becomes specialized in silent reading - is a late development in humankind's evolution, and that the process by which this function develops is still changing. View quote
Alberto Manguel
At different times and in different places I have come to expect certain books to look a certain way, and, as in all fashions, these changing features fix a precise quality onto a book's definition. I judge a book by its cover; I judge a book by its shape. View quote
Alberto Manguel
We are losing our common vocabulary, built over thousands of years to help and delight and instruct us, for the sake of what we take to be the new technology's virtues. View quote
Alberto Manguel
I like to imagine that, on the day after my last, my library and I will crumble together, so that even when I am no more I'll still be with my books. View quote
Alberto Manguel
My books hold between their covers every story I've ever known and still remember, or have now forgotten, or may one day read; they fill the space around me with ancient and new voices. View quote
Alberto Manguel
Augustine's description of Ambrose's silent reading (including the remark that he never read aloud) is the first definite instance recorded in Western literature. View quote
Alberto Manguel
Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know. View quote
Alberto Manguel
Every reader exists to ensure for a certain book a modest immortality. Reading is, in this sense, a ritual of rebirth. View quote
Alberto Manguel
At one magical instant in your early childhood, the page of a book-that string of confused, alien ciphers-shivered into meaning. Words spoke to you, gave up their secrets; at that moment, whole universes opened. You became, irrevocably, a reader. View quote
Alberto Manguel
Each book was a world unto itself, and in it I took refuge. (Alberto Manguel)
In the light, we read the inventions of others; in the darkness we invent our own stories. View quote
Alberto Manguel
I have no feelings of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. They will wait for me till the end of my days. View quote
Alberto Manguel
Life happened because I turned the pages. View quote
Alberto Manguel
One book calls to another unexpectedly, creating alliances across different cultures and centuries. View quote
Alberto Manguel
I always knew that I wanted to live with books, even as a child, because we traveled a lot. Home was the book to which I came back every evening. View quote
Alberto Manguel
The love of libraries, like most loves, must be learned. View quote
Alberto Manguel
If every library is in some sense a reflection of its readers, it is also an image of that which we are not, and cannot be. View quote
Alberto Manguel
Ultimately, the number of books always exceeds the space they are granted. View quote
Alberto Manguel
In the dark, with the windows lit and the rows of books glittering, the library is a closed space, a universe of self-serving rules that pretend to replace or translate those of the shapeless universe beyond. View quote
Alberto Manguel
There is a line of poetry, a sentence in a fable, a word in an essay, by which my existence is justified; find that line, and immortality is assured. (Alberto Manguel)
Unpacking books is a revelatory activity. View quote
Alberto Manguel
The telling of stories creates the real world. View quote
Alberto Manguel
In my fool hardy youth, when my friends were dreaming of heroic deeds in the realms of engineering and law, finance and national politics, I dreamt of becoming a librarian. View quote
Alberto Manguel
In a library, no empty shelf remains empty for long. View quote
Alberto Manguel