That place that does contain
My books, the best companions, is to me
A glorious court, where read more

That place that does contain
My books, the best companions, is to me
A glorious court, where hourly I converse
With the old sages and philosophers;
And sometimes, for variety, I confer
With kings and emperors, and weigh their counsels;
Calling their victories, if unjustly got,
Unto a strict account, and, in my fancy,
Deface their ill-placed statues.

If truth is beauty, how come no one has their hair done in a library.

If truth is beauty, how come no one has their hair done in a library.

A library is an arsenal of liberty.

A library is an arsenal of liberty.

Libraries are as the shrines where all the relics of the ancient
saints, full of true virtue, and that read more

Libraries are as the shrines where all the relics of the ancient
saints, full of true virtue, and that without delusion or
imposture, are preserved and reposed.

To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.

To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse.

The richest minds need not large libraries.

The richest minds need not large libraries.

What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though all
the souls of all read more

What a place to be in is an old library! It seems as though all
the souls of all the writers that have bequeathed their labours
to these Bodleians were reposing here as in some dormitory, or
middle state. I do not want to handle, to profane the leaves,
their winding-sheets. I could as soon dislodge a shade. I seem
to inhale learning, walking amid their foliage; and the odor of
their old moth-scented coverings is fragrant as the first bloom
of those sciential apples which grew amid the happy orchard.
- Charles Lamb (used pseudonym Elia),

'Tis well to borrow from the good and the great;
'Tis wise to learn: 'tis God-like to create!

'Tis well to borrow from the good and the great;
'Tis wise to learn: 'tis God-like to create!

A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a read more

A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them