As one walks into the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, built in 1897, a man is met by a scene of supreme architectural beauty. Browsing the main lobby of the building, he will find a number of quotes inscribed into the walls located directly below a series of circular windows. These quotes are compiled from a vast span of traditions, reaching back to the wisdom of the ancients while paying homage to the contemporary writers of the times. Reading them is like a meal for one’s soul, leaving us to digest the power and wisdom behind these great quotes.

Here we have compiled all twenty-eight quotes from the main lobby for you to read and digest for yourself.

“The glory of every people arises from its authors.”

“The history of the world is the biography of great men.”

“Knowledge comes but wisdom lingers.”

“Books will speak plain when counselors blanch.”

“Wisdom is the principal thing therefore get wisdom with all they getting get wisdom.”

“Ignorance is the curse of God /Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.”

“How charming is divine philosophy.”

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty.”

“There is but one temple in the universe and that is the body of man.”

“In books lies the soul of the whole past time.”

“Words are also actions and actions are a kind of words.”

“Reading maketh the whole man / Conference a ready man / an writing an exact man.”

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

“Science is organized knowledge.”

“Books must follow sciences and not sciences book.”

“Nature is the art of God.”

“Too low they build who build beneath the stars.”

“There is no work of genius which has not been the delight of mankind.”

“It is the mind that makes the man and our vigor is in our immortal soul.”

“They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts.”

“Tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.”

“The true shekinah is man.”

“Only the actions of the just smell sweet and blossom in the dust.”

“Art is long and time is fleeting.”

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

“Man is one world and hath another to attend him.”

“Glory is acquired by virtue but preserved by letters.”

“The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.”