Political Quotes

“this year is the 200th anniversary of one of the wisest decisions Congress ever made. In 1815, Congress acquired the entirety of Thomas Jefferson's personal library to replace Congress's library, which was burnt by the British Army the previous year. I would like to take a few moments to recognize this anniversary and to focus on the good work one small Library of Congress program does today. Though the Library of Congress was established in 1800, for the first 15 years of its existence it was mainly a law library. It was not until the acquisition of Jefferson's personal library that the Library became the broad repository of knowledge that it is today. Some Members of Congress opposed the idea of buying Jefferson's entire library, which included books in many languages, and on a variety of topics, including science, math, philosophy, and religion. However, Thomas Jefferson famously replied, ``I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer.'' Fortunately, this view won the day, and today the Library contains an unparalleled number of items from every branch of knowledge, making it the largest library in the world. Forever growing, the Library of Congress receives 20,000 new items every day. However, only about half are kept for the Library's permanent collection.…”