Meandering in the stacks . . .

Today is the birthday of Daniel Joseph Boorstin (October 1, 1914 – February 28, 2004), historian, professor, attorney, and writer. He received the 1974 Pulitzer Prize in history. Daniel J. Boorstin was appointed twelfth Librarian of the United States Congress from 1975 until 1987.

"Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know."
- Daniel J. Boorstin

"Artists and writers, I believe, have a special role, creating new questions for which they offer experimental answers. We are tested, enriched, and fulfilled by the varieties of experience. And as the years pass there are increasing advantages to being a questioner. Answers can trouble us by their inconsistency, but there is no such problem with questions. I am not obliged to hang on to earlier questions, and there can be no discord - only growth - between then and now. Learning, I have found, is a way of becoming inconsistent with my past self. I believe in vocation, a calling for reasons we do not understand to do whatever we discover we can do."
- Daniel J. Boorstin

"We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions."
- Daniel J. Boorstin

"Knowledge is not simply another commodity. On the contrary. Knowledge is never used up. It increases by diffusion and grows by dispersion. "
- Daniel J. Boorstin

"Technology is so much fun but we can drown in our technology. The fog of information can drive out knowledge."
- Daniel J. Boorstin

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge."
- Daniel J. Boorstin

Boorstin images source (1)