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.
Robert DarntonRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes a universal intellectual community that transcends geographic and political boundaries.
In this quote, Robert Darnton discusses the concept of the 'Republic of Letters', which refers to an intellectual space where ideas flow freely among individuals regardless of their nationality or societal constraints. It suggests that our engagement with knowledge and ideas creates a connection that surpasses traditional boundaries, fostering a sense of belonging to a larger community devoted to learning and exchange.
Themes
KnowledgeIdeasCommunityIntellectFreedom
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on the importance of free thought in academic discussions.
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I believe there is complete equality between men and women. And I believe those passages in the New Testament, not by Jesus, but by Paul, that say women should not adorn themselves, they should always wear hats or color their hair in church - things like that - I think they are signs of the times and should not apply to modern-day life.
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I now wish that I had spent somewhat more of my life with verse. This is not because I fear having missed out on truths that are incapable of statement in prose. There are no such truths; there is nothing about death that Swinburne and Landor knew but Epicurus and Heidegger failed to grasp. Rather, it is because I would have lived more fully if I had been able to rattle off more old chestnuts — just as I would have if I had made more close friends.
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