Vartan Gregorian Quotes

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.

A great library contains the diary of the human race.

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

If there was a day that history was not recorded, then the history of one hundred days would be in peril.

The health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture, and our concern for the future can be tested by how well we support out libraries.

If you do not value libraries then you do not value information or culture or wisdom. You are silencing the voices of the past and you are damaging the future.

You learn from a conglomeration of the incredible past - whatever experience gotten in any way whatsoever.

For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.

Museums are good things, places to look and absorb and learn.

We've got to map all of our ancient history before it's gone because, let's face it, if we don't have a common heritage to share, something to get excited about, then what are we living for?

A library implies an act of faith.

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.

The stream of time sweeps away errors, and leaves the truth for the inheritance of humanity.

What is true for book publishing is true for civilization: the books that survive the test of time are humanity's backlist, our collective memory.

History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals.

We know the past and its great events, the present in its multitudinous complications, chiefly through faith in the testimony of others.

History is information. Memory is part of your identity.

If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.

History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life and brings us tidings of antiquity

History depends always upon what, for one reason or another, has survived from earlier periods, particularly upon what was written down or pictured.

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years.

Before books, nothing got saved. We don’t know what the cavemen thought about caves even though they tried to write on the walls.

No people can live in the past - not even in its own past. But if it no longer has a link with its history, it must of necessity perish. Persia, crowded with hardship and glory, ordeals and hopes. With the help of the Almighty, the lessons of the past constitute the best guide for the citizens of the future.

Only by not forgetting the past can we be the master of the future.