All round the room my silent servants wait,
My friends in every season, bright and dim.

All round the room my silent servants wait,
My friends in every season, bright and dim.

A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of
shadows.

A library is but the soul's burial-ground. It is the land of
shadows.

The medicine chest of the soul.

The medicine chest of the soul.

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.

Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were
only the history of pinheads.

Every library should try to be complete on something, if it were
only the history of pinheads.

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.

Shelved around us lie
The mummied authors.

Shelved around us lie
The mummied authors.

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

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

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