Brianna Labuskes > Quotes

“I can tell you that banning books, burning books, blocking books is often used as a way to erase people, a belief system, or culture.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“The men who sought violence didn't understand that while swords could destroy bodies, a pen could destroy a nation.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“There are moments in life when you have to put what is right over what party you vote for. And if you can’t recognize those moments when the stakes are low—let me assure you, you won’t recognize them when the stakes are high. Thank you.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“Books are a way we leave a mark on the world, aren’t they? They say we were here, we loved and we grieved and we laughed and we made mistakes and we existed. They can be burned halfway across the world, but the words cannot be unread, the stories cannot be untold. They do live on in this library, but more importantly they are immortalized in anyone who has read them.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“Burning books about things you do not like or understand does not mean those things no longer exist.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“If you feel like you don’t have a choice, you’re just ignoring the options that you don’t want to consider.”
― Brianna Labuskes, Girls of Glass

“can tell you that banning books, burning books, blocking books is often used as a way to erase a people, a belief system, a culture,” Hannah said. “To say these voices don’t belong here, even when those writers represent the very best of a country. “I can”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue—you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humor and ships at sea by night—there’s all heaven and earth in a book.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“History is built on moments that feel insignificant,”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“Grief could warp reality into something unrecognizable.”
― Brianna Labuskes, Girls of Glass

“The way to judge people wasn’t to look at how they acted toward people they wanted to impress; it was to look at the way they treated those who could do nothing for them.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“Few people have to watch their country die,” Hannah said, her lyrical voice all the more captivating because she spoke softly. Althea found herself leaning toward her, and she imagined the rest of the audience was no different. “I have had that dubious privilege, and I can tell you that it comes not as a rebel shout but as a sly whisper. The cracks creep in, insidious as anything I’ve ever seen. It can start with rumblings about an unreliable press and rumors about political enemies that will threaten your family, your children. It can deepen with each disdainful remark about science and art and literature in a pub on a Friday night. It comes cloaked in patriotism and love of country, and uses that as armor against any criticism.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“For missing the idea of something more than the thing itself.”
― Brianna Labuskes, It Ends with Her

“The way to judge people wasn't to look at how they acted toward people they wanted to impress; it was to look at the way they treated those who could do nothing for them.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“All Hitler had to do was make people afraid: There is a monster out there who will attack you if you don’t let me protect you.” “And if that requires sacrificing a few freedoms, then that’s the price for law and order, isn’t it?”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“p. 369
An attack on books, on rationality, on knowledge isn't a tempest in a teacup, but rather a canary dead in a coal mine.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“Don’t say something that’s not true because it sounds nice. Because it fits what you want it to be. Say I’m not crazy. Say I’m normal. Fine. Don’t say I’m strong when I’m not.”
― Brianna Labuskes, Girls of Glass

“I can tell you that banning books, burning books, blocking books is often used as a way to erase a people, a belief system, a culture,” Hannah said. “To say these voices don’t belong here, even when those writers represent the very best of a country.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“Maybe happiness wasn’t something everyone could get. But emotional stability was certainly underrated.”
― Brianna Labuskes, It Ends with Her

“When you sell a man a book you don’t sell him just twelve ounces of paper and ink and glue—you sell him a whole new life. Love and friendship and humor and ships at sea by night—there’s all heaven and earth in a book.’” It was as if someone had taken Viv’s life and bottled it into a simple quote.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“I think sometimes people get so caught up in the literary prestige of a novel...the idea that reading should be fun is lost.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. —Ernest Hemingway”
― Brianna Labuskes, It Ends with Her

“Emotions, as always, were the enemy, dangerous and deceptive. They clouded judgments, they altered reality, they directed focus from what was important.”
― Brianna Labuskes, Girls of Glass

“Knowing someone, all their weaknesses, all their beautiful insecurities and vulnerabilities, all the ways to manipulate them—it gave her”
― Brianna Labuskes, A Familiar Sight

“Trolls were trolls for a reason. On psychological tests, they routinely scored high for narcissism and sadistic tendencies—they weren’t there in good faith; they were there to feed the darkness in their own souls. She wanted to tell AlexFan that he just had to wait a little bit longer.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Lies You Wrote

“We need people in our lives who don’t expect us to be anything but what we are,”
― Brianna Labuskes, A Familiar Sight

“It says, going into an investigation with a preconceived assumption of guilt blinds you to any other options,”
― Brianna Labuskes, Girls of Glass

“The time and distance that came with history had a way of letting people forget.”
― Brianna Labuskes, The Librarian of Burned Books

“Genetics loaded the gun, environment pulled the trigger.”
― Brianna Labuskes, A Familiar Sight