Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.
John MuirRead
The library, I believe, is the last of our public institutions to which you can go without credentials. You don't even need the sticker on your windshield that you need to get into the public beach. All you need is the willingness to read.
Interpretation
The library is a unique public place accessible to everyone without needing any formal requirements.
This quote emphasizes the essential role of libraries as accessible spaces for everyone, regardless of their background or status. Libraries serve as a refuge for knowledge and learning, inviting individuals to engage with information freely, unlike many other public institutions that require credentials or proof of permission to access them.
In practice
During a speech about community resources, one might reference this quote to highlight the importance of libraries.
Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.
I feel that for years of teaching in the country and reading criticism in books, I feel like the things most needed in our culture are the understanding of the meanings of our music. We haven't done that good of job teaching our kids what our music means or how we developed our taste in music that reminds us and teaches us who we are.
I made use of the college library by borrowing books other than scientific books, such as all of the plays by George Bernard Shaw, the writing of Edgar Allan Poe. The college library helped me to develop a broader aspect on life.
Had I pursued my education long enough to learn all the conventional dos and don'ts of starting a business, I often wonder how different my life and career might have been.
I believe that in the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution, and personal faith more forceful than faculty.
If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society... It is the education which gives a man a clear, conscious view of their own opinions and judgements, a truth in developing them, an eloquence in expressing them, and a force in urging them. It teaches him to see things as they are, to go right to the point, to disentangle a skein of thought to detect what is sophistical and to discard what is irrelevant.
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