James Library Building
Literary Quotations

The James Library building has been home to the Museum of Early Trades & Crafts since 1970. True to its original purpose, this beautiful building is decorated with literary quotations. They are painted on walls, they appear in stained glass windows, and some are even carved into fireplace mantles.

Book Stack Gallery

Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today. – Franklin
with Franklin’s printing press
Science is organized knowledge. – Herbert Spencer
with globe and telescope

Foyer Gallery

Nature is the art of God. – Sir Thomas Browne
with sheaves and plow

The books that help you the most are the ones that make you think the most. – Theodore Parker

They are never alone that are accompanied by noble thoughts. – Sidney
both contained in an architectural motif with owl above

More water glideth by the mill than wots the Miller of. – Shakespeare
with mill scene
As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean. – Coleridge
with ship on an ocean
Education is our only political safety. – Horace Mann
with “veritas” in a book

Madison Room

Architecture is frozen music. – Schilling
Use well the moment; what the hour bring for thy use is in thy power; and what thou best canst
understand is just the thing lies nearest to they hand. – Goethe
contained in an architectural motif with hour glass reading “tempus fugit.”
The foundation of every state is the education of its youth. – Dionysius
with winged angel holding a lamp before a young student

Music is a stimulant to mental exertion. – D. Israeli
with woman holding a harp

Art is long and time is fleeting. – Longfellow

Happy is the man that findeth Wisdom and the man that getteth . – Proverbs, Chapter 3, verse 13
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. – Proverbs, Chapter 22, verse 1

Fireplace Inscription:

God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead and make us heirs
of the spiritual life of past ages. - William Ellery Channing

Painted Wall Inscriptions:

Order is heavens first law. – Alexander Pope
A good book is the best of friends the same today and forever.

Despair is the greatest of our errors.

Man is glorious and happy not by what he has but by what he is.

Trustees' Room

The pen is mightier than the sword. – Bulwer
with an ornate pen and ink

Glory is acquired by virtue; but preserved by letters. – Petrarch

Books are lighthouses erected in the great sea of time. – E.P. Whipple
seascape with a lighthouse, surrounded by scrollwork

Tongues in trees; Books in running brooks; Sermons in stones; and Good in everything. – Wm. Shakespeare
nature scene, surrounded by scrollwork

Fireplace Inscription:

How forcible are right words. – Book of Job

©2002-6 Museum of Early Trades & Crafts