- Isabel Wilkerson: And yes, not one of us was around when this house was built.
- Isabel Wilkerson: But here we are. The current occupants of a property with stress cracks built into the foundation, and a roof that must be replaced.
- Isabel Wilkerson: We are the heirs to whatever is right or wrong with it. We didn't erect the uneven pillars. But they are ours to deal with now.
- Isabel Wilkerson: The cracks won't fix themselves. Any more deterioration is on our watch.
- German woman: 20,000 books that were lost that night... .
- German woman: Books filled with imagination and ideas and history... .
- German woman: "Where you burn books, you end up burning men". It's a quote by Heinrich Heine. He was a poet. German and Jewish.
- Isabel Wilkerson: When you live in an old house, you may not want to go into the basement after a storm to see what the rains have brought. But choose not to look at your own peril.
- Isabel Wilkerson: We're all like homeowners who've inherited a house on a piece of land that's beautiful on the outside. But the soil is unstable.