The computer can help us find what we know is there. But the book remains our symbol and our resource for the unimagined question and the unwelcome answer.

The most important lesson of American history is the promise of the unexpected. None of our ancestors would have imagined settling way over here on this unknown continent. So we must continue to have society that is hospitable to the unexpected, which allows possibilities to develop beyond our own imaginings.

While knowledge is orderly and cumulative, information is random and miscellaneous.

[The Library of Congress] is a multimedia encyclopedia. These are the tentacles of a nation.

Climaxing a movement for calendar reform which had been developing for at least a century, in 1582 Pope Gregory ordained that October 4 was to be followed by October 15.

We read advertisements... to discover and enlarge our desires.

While the focus in the landscape of Old World cities was commonly government structures, churches, or the residences of rulers, the landscape and the skyline of American cities have boasted their hotels, department stores, office buildings, apartments, and skyscrapers. In this grandeur, Americans have expressed their Booster Pride, their hopes for visitors and new settlers, and customers, for thriving commerce and industry.