Main entrance and stair hall, first floor

"Haec studia adolescentiam alunt, senectutem oblectant, secundas res ornant, adversis solatium et perfungiam praebent, delectant domi, non impediunt foris, pernoctant nobiscum, peregrinantur, rusticantur." Cicero, Pro Archia

"These studies sustain youth and entertain old age, they enhance prosperity, and offer a refuge and solace in adversity, they delight us when we are at home without hindering us in the wider world, and are with us at night, when we travel and when we visit the countryside."

Main entrance, above outer doors

"O blessed letters! That combine in one all ages past and make one live with all / By you we do confer with who are gone, and the dead--living unto counsel call."

--Samuel Daniel

Main entrance, above inner doors

"Read not to contradict, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider."

--Francis Bacon, Of Studies

Entry doors to main reading room

"Talkers are no great doers."

--William Shakespeare, Richard III, act I scene iii

Doors to main reading room, first floor

"Timor Domini Principium Sapientiae."

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."

--Proverbs 1:7

Above doorway in main stair hall, first floor

"There is no past so long as books shall live."

--Edward Bulwer-Lytton, The Souls of Books

Above doorway in main stair hall, first floor

"Art hath an enemy called ignorance."

-Ben Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour

Above doorway in main stair hall, first floor

"There's small choice in rotten apples."

--William Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, act I scene i

Inside main reading room, to the right of the circulation desk

"Inter folia fructus."

("Among the pages, there is fruit.")

--unattributed (Julianna P. Pakstis, translation)

Above doorway, main stair hall