Your library is your portrait

Holbrook Jackson (who was a famous bibliophile) once said, ‘Your library is your portrait.’ I like this quote because the books one collects can tell others more about who you are than your physical appearance. Here are a few other quotes about libraries and some beautiful photos of some extraordinary libraries.

Libraries are not made; they grow. – Augustine Birrell

Good as it is to inherit a library, it is better to collect one. – Augustine Birrell

It is impossible to enter a large library… without feeling an inward sensation of reverence, and without catching some sparks of noble emulation, from the mass of mind which is scattered around you.
– James Crossley

What is a great love of books? It is something like a personal introduction to the great and good men of all past times. Books, it is true, are silent as you see them on their shelves; but, silent as they are, when I enter a library I feel as if almost the dead were present, and I know if I put questions to these books they will answer me with all the faithfulness and fulness which has been left in them by the great men who have left the books with us. – John Bright