No man becomes rich unless he enriches others.

There is not such a cradle of democracy upon the earth as the Free Public Library, this republic of letters, where neither rank, office, nor wealth receives the slightest consideration.

There is no use whatsoever in trying to help people who do not help themselves.

In [my] life ... I did not understand steam machinery, but I tried to understand that much more complicated piece of mechanism - man.

He that cannot reason is a fool. He that will not is a bigot. He that dare not is a slave.

Young man, make your name worth something.

A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert.