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William James (1898)

Philosophical Conceptions and Practical Results

In: University of California Chronicle, ed. by -. University of California, vol. 1, chap. 1, pp. 287-310.

An address delivered before the Philosophical Union at Berkeley, August 26, 1898 by William James, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Psychology at Harvard University

"The library is not a shrine for the worship of books. It is not a temple where literary incense must be burned or where one's devotion to the bound book is expressed in ritual. A library, to modify the famous metaphor of Socrates, should be the delivery room for the birth of ideas - a place where history comes to life." — Norman Cousins, 1954