Epigrams Inspired by the Inscriptions in the Library of Congress - X (2009)

    46
“The true university of these days is a collection of books.”

What shall a student do when school is propagating lies:
That truth does not exist, and that what lives is really dead,
That man is just an animal with more malicious eyes,
And humankind a parasite which nature’s heart has fed?

Thank God that books exist, to which a student still may turn
And commit scholastic blasphemy: to seek the truth, and learn.


    47
“The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings.”

How many men, great conquerors, who had trophies line their shelves,
Could win the world, and break its back, and yet were slaves themselves?


    48
“Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies.”

The commotion of the world will jostle on
Till time itself is dead and gone;
So seek those moments of timeless repose,
When one may pause and ponder where he goes.


    49
“Dreams, books are each a world.
Books we know are a substantial world,
Both pure and good.”

Dreams and books may be like founts, from which good proverbs burst;
But fools dream too, and also read, and twist the best to worst.


    50
“Studies perfect nature and are perfected by experience.”

Studies alone will make one soft;
At learning brute experience scoffed!
Combined they bring sweet balance to the soul,
The blessings of wisdom and self-control.