How we cite our quotes: (Paragraph)
Quote #7
Methodical composition distracts me from the present condition of humanity. The certainty that everything has already been written annuls us, or renders us phantasmal. (14)
The narrator starts to get at why everybody's been feeling suicidal lately. Does the fact that everything has already been said make human life redundant?
Quote #8
Epidemics, heretical discords, pilgrimages that inevitably degenerate into brigandage have decimated the population. I believe I mentioned the suicides, which are more and more frequent every year. (14)
It seems as though ideas are the greatest cause of death in the Library – either people are fighting and killing each other over them, or people are killing themselves for philosophical reasons.
Quote #9
I am perhaps misled by old age and fear, but I suspect that the human species – the only species – teeters at the verge of extinction, yet that the Library – enlightened, solitary, infinite, perfectly unmoving, armed with precious volumes, pointless, incorruptible, and secret – will endure. (14)
Once again the narrator compares the fragility and impermanence of human life with the permanence of the Library.