"Let heaven exist, though my own place be in hell" (117) (Metaphor)
In this quote, the narrator compares the state of having seen the catalog of catalogs to being in heaven, and life without seeing the catalog of catalogs to life in hell. This bold, hyperbolic dichotomy underscores how terrible and devoid of meaning he feels his life has been because he didn't find the catalog of catalogs or the "Book-Man" (116).
"They affirm all things, deny all things, and confound and confuse all things, like some mad and hallucinating deity" (117) (Simile)
In this quote, the books in the Library are collectively compared to a god. This is somewhat different from the way the narrator has been referencing God throughout the short story as the creator of the Library. By comparing the books specifically to a "mad and hallucinating" god, the narrator creates a negative, hopeless tone regarding finding meaning in the Library.
"I know districts in which the young people prostrate themselves before books and like savages kiss their pages, though they cannot read a letter" (118) (Simile)
The ways that people read, especially read foreign languages, was of major interest and concern to Borges as a writer and translator of both Spanish and English. The narrator of "The Library of Babel" has already described how people in his generation and his father's generation reacted to philosophical discoveries about the Library; many went insane and killed themselves or others because they felt there was no meaning or sense in so many of the Library's books. This quote shows that many young people cannot understand the Library's books either, but react to this with great love or piety that the narrator finds distasteful. Comparing young people to "savages" is not only a negative word, but evokes an idea of evolutionary regression. This comparison implies that humanity not only lacks progress but is moving backward because of the struggle to find meaning.
