learning-loving

Updated: May 9, 2025

The age of learned and curious merchants, of high-spirited and learning-loving nobles, of book-collecting bishops, of antiquaries, is over. The Bodleian cannot condescend to beg. It is too majestical. But I, an unauthorized stranger, have no need to be ashamed. Especially rich is this great library in Americana, and America suggests multi-millionaires.

Augustine Birrell - In the Name of the Bodleian and Other Essays