QuoteProject
It was the kind of library he had only read about in books.
Alan Bennett
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote expresses a sense of wonder and appreciation for an extraordinary library experience.

Alan Bennett's quote captures the enchantment and fascination one can feel when encountering a place that embodies the idealized version of a library, one that surpasses imagination. It highlights how literature and knowledge can transport us to realms we have only dreamt of, making the experience of being in such a library feel like a magical moment straight out of a story.

Themes

LibraryBooksImaginationWonderKnowledge

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the importance of reading, one might use this quote to emphasize the magical experiences that libraries can offer.

More from Alan Bennett

Standards are always out of date. That's what makes them standards.
Alan BennettRead
To begin with, it's true, she read with trepidation and some unease. The sheer endlessness of books outfaced her and she had no idea how to go on; there was no system to her reading, with one book leading to another, and often she had two or three on the go at the same time.
Alan BennettRead
A book is a device to ignite the imagination.
Alan BennettRead
Those who have known the famous are publicly debriefed of their memories, knowing as their own dusk falls that they will only be remembered for remembering someone else.
Alan BennettRead
To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less...selfish.
Alan BennettRead
The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - which you had thought special and particular to you. And now, here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out, and taken yours
Alan BennettRead

Similar quotes

We live in a world of unused and misapplied knowledge and skill.
H. G. WellsRead
The education of women is the best way to save the environment.
E. O. WilsonRead
That is the future, and it is probably nearer than we think. But our primary problem as universities is not engineering that future. We must rise above the obsession with quantity of information and speed of transmission, and recognize that the key issue for us is our ability to organize this information once it has been amassed - to assimilate it, find meaning in it, and assure its survival for use by generations to come.
Vartan GregorianRead
It was play rather than work which enabled man to evolve his higher faculties - everything we mean by the word 'culture'.
Herbert ReadRead
If you really want to change a culture to empower women improve basic hygiene and health care and fight high rates of infant mortality the answer is to educate girls.
Greg MortensonRead
Words are alive--when I've found a story that I love, I read it again and again, like playing a favorite song over and over. Reading isn't passive--I enter the story with the characters, breathe their air, feel their frustrations, scream at them to stop when they're about to do something stupid, cry with them, laugh with them. Reading for me, is spending time with a friend. A book is a friend. You can never have too many.
Gary PaulsenRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.