All of us are citizens in a republic much larger than the Republic of America. It is the Republic of Letters, a realm of the mind that extends everywhere, without police, national boundaries, or disciplinary frontiers.
Robert DarntonRead
Thanks to modern technology, we now can deliver every text in every research library to every citizen in our country, and to everyone in the world. If we fail to do so, we are not living up to our civic duty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the responsibility of utilizing technology to ensure access to information for all citizens.
Robert Darnton highlights the transformative power of modern technology in making knowledge and information accessible to everyone, reinforcing the idea that with this capability comes a civic responsibility. He argues that if society fails to leverage technology to disseminate information from research libraries to all individuals, we are neglecting our duty to promote informed citizenship and equal access to knowledge.
Themes
TechnologyAccessibilityKnowledgeCivic DutyInformation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about digital libraries, I might quote this to stress the importance of access to research.
More from Robert Darnton
All quotes →Similar quotes
Like anything else, you can use the Internet for good or ill. You can get out of it what you want to. There's no evil about it. The way I see it, it's a liberation.
Willie NelsonRead
Nobody reads the disclosures that roll down your computer screen. You click 'I agree' but you don't know what you're agreeing to.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Cryptocurrency currencies take the concept of money, and they take it native into computers, where everything is settled with computers and doesn't require external institutions or trusted third parties to validate things.
Naval RavikantRead
Every one of today's smartphones has thousands of times more processing power than the computers that guided astronauts to the moon.
Peter ThielRead
I'm always interested in what you can do with technology that people haven't thought of doing yet.
Brian EnoRead
It wasn't very long ago when you wouldn't even think about there being health information on the smartphone. There's financial information. There's your conversations; there's business secrets. There's probably more information about you on here than exists in your home.
Tim CookRead