“…One may smile, and smile, and be a villain.”— Hamlet (Hamlet, Act I scene v)
Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or divine, that lie outside books. Now I realized that not infrequently books speak of books: it is as if they spoke among themselves. In the light of this reflection, the library seemed all the more disturbing to me. It was then the place of a long, centuries-old murmuring, an imperceptible dialogue between one parchment and another, a living thing, a receptacle of powers not to be ruled by a human mind, a treasure of secrets emanated by many minds, surviving the death of those who had produced them or had been their conveyors.
— The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
The Jews were chosen for things eternal, to keep the sanctuary of the true religion. The Greeks prepared the elements of natural culture, of science and art, for the use of the church. The Romans developed the idea of law, that organized the civilized world in a universal empire, ready to serve the spiritual universality of the gospel.
— History of the Christian Church, by Philip Schaff
Why, let the stricken deer go weep,
The hart ungalled play;
For some must watch, while some must sleep;
So runs the world away.
— Hamlet, Shakespeare
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
— Hamlet, William Shakespeare
Fragment of furnishing fabric (late 19th century). Possibly printed by Morris & Co.
Image and text courtesy MFA Boston.
Marie-Victoire Lemoine (detail)
“I must study politics and war, that my sons may have the liberty to study mathematics and philosophy, natural history and naval architecture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, tapestry, and porcelain.”— John Adams