It Is Not Obligatory For A Generation

Every Life Is, More Or Less, A Ruin Among Whose Debris We Have To Discover What The Person Ought To Have Been.

Here, Then, Is The Point At Which I See The New Mission Of The Librarian Rise Up Incomparably Higher Than All Those Preceding. Up Until The Present, The Librarian Has Been Principally Occupied With The Book As A Thing, As A Material Object. From Now On He Must Give His Attention To The Book As A Living Function. He Must Become A Policeman, Master Of The Raging Book.

The Nineteenth Century, Utilitarian Throughout, Set Up A Utilitarian Interpretation Of The Phenomenon Of Life Which Has Come Down To Us And May Still Be Considered As The Commonplace Of Everyday Thinking. ... An Innate Blindness Seems To Have Closed The Eyes Of This Epoch To All But Those Facts Which Show Life As A Phenomenon Of Utility

It Is Not Obligatory For A Generation To Have Great Men.

Whoever Has Not Felt The Danger Of Our Times Palpitating Under His Hand, Has Not Really Penetrated To The Vitals Of Destiny, He Has Merely Pricked The Surface.