I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.

The great Argentinian mystic and writer Jorge Luis Borges once wrote, “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” In these few, luminous words, he offers not merely a reflection on books, but a vision of the eternal — a revelation of how knowledge, imagination, and the written word can lift the human soul toward something divine. Borges, who spent much of his life surrounded by books and later lost his sight, saw the library not as a mere building of shelves and pages, but as a symbol of infinite truth, a mirror of creation itself. His Paradise was not a garden of gold or pleasure, but a sanctuary of wisdom — a place where every word, every idea, every dream becomes a star in the firmament of thought.

To Borges, the library was both sacred and eternal. Every book was a doorway into another world, and every word an echo of the divine. He believed that within the vastness of books lies the reflection of humanity’s soul — our fears, our triumphs, our longings, and our search for meaning. Just as the ancients imagined heaven as a place of perfect harmony, Borges imagined it as a place of perfect understanding, where every question finds its answer, and every story leads us closer to truth. For him, Paradise was not a place to escape life’s sorrows, but a place where the mind and spirit could wander without limit, forever discovering, forever learning.

Consider the life of Alexandria, the city that once held the greatest library of the ancient world. In those marble halls were gathered the thoughts of poets, philosophers, and prophets from across the earth. It was said that when the Library of Alexandria burned, a thousand worlds perished — yet the spirit of that library never truly died. For the dream of Alexandria lives on in every place where books are cherished and ideas are shared. Borges, born centuries later, carried that same flame within him. Though he could no longer see the words on the page, he still imagined Paradise as a library, for in the boundless realm of the mind, the light of wisdom never goes out.

The ancients believed that man’s greatest gift was not strength or wealth, but memory — the power to preserve and pass down knowledge. To read is to partake in that sacred chain, linking one soul to another across the vastness of time. When you open a book, you commune with the dead; you hear their voices, their laughter, their prayers. In this communion, the library becomes holy ground — a temple of thought, where the divine spark of creation flickers within every page. Thus Borges’ Paradise is not distant or unreachable; it already exists, wherever minds meet in wonder and understanding.

There is also humility in Borges’ vision. For though he was a man of immense intellect, he understood that even the greatest library could never contain the full measure of truth. The infinite shelves of books were a reflection of infinity itself — a reminder that knowledge, like the divine, can never be fully possessed, only pursued. In this way, to walk among books is to walk among mysteries, to touch the edge of the eternal. Paradise, then, is not a reward for the righteous, but a state of being — the joy of seeking, the awe of discovery, the endless dance between the known and the unknown.

We see this same reverence for knowledge in the story of Malala Yousafzai, the young girl who risked her life for the right to read. To her, books were not mere paper, but freedom itself — the power to rise beyond ignorance and oppression. When she declared that “one child, one teacher, one book, and one pen can change the world,” she echoed Borges’ truth. For a library, in the highest sense, is not only a room of books, but every mind that dares to imagine, to question, to dream of something greater.

And so, dear listener, let this wisdom sink deep into your heart: Seek your Paradise not in pleasure, but in knowledge. Build your own library — not only of books, but of ideas, experiences, and virtues. Read not merely to know, but to grow. When you open a book, open also your soul. When you listen to another’s story, you step into eternity. Fill your life with the treasures of thought, and you will never be poor.

For in the end, as Borges knew, Paradise is not beyond the stars — it is wherever the light of understanding shines. To live among books, to love ideas, to cherish wisdom — this is to dwell already in the kingdom of the mind, where the soul walks freely among eternal words, and every page turns toward the infinite.