1. What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.

    — Alfred Hitchcock (via penamerican)

  2. The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

    — Dr. Seuss

  3. When you are growing up there are two institutional places that affect you most powerfully: the church, which belongs to God, and the public library, which belongs to you. The public library is the great equalizer.

    — Keith Richards

    (Source: nypl.org)

  4. Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.

    — Gustave Flaubert

    (Source: brainyquote.com)

  5. Freedom not power is the greatest good. That man is truly free who desires what he is able to perform, and does what he desires.

    — Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in Emile. Come to “Occupy Rousseau: Inequality and Social Justice” at LIVE from the NYPL on Friday for more discussion.

  6. No man has a right to monopolize more than he can enjoy.

    — Percy Bysshe Shelley, in Declaration of Rights. Learn more about Shelley at Shelley’s Ghost, at the NYPL through June 24.

  7. MUSIC, when soft voices die, / Vibrates in the memory. — / ODOURS, when sweet violets sicken, / Live within the sense they quicken. —

    — “To…” by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Learn more about Shelley’s poetry at Shelley’s Ghost, at the NYPL through June 24.

  8. A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness.

    — 

    Edith Wharton

    May your day be mirthful as we celebrate Edith Wharton’s birthday! Looking for one of her classics? We’ve got them right here!

  9. A Honey of a Tuesday

    “Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is go where they can find you.” - Winnie the Pooh


    Wishing all of our 20,000 followers a very happy day for today is A. A. Milne’s birthday.  Our deepest gratitude to Mr. Milne for creating the wondrous characters of Hundred Acre Wood, who you can see in reality if you stop by the Library’s centennial exhibition, where Pooh and his friends are enjoying hundreds of historic items.

  10. A strange twilight world opened up before me, and I felt as the first man to set foot on another planet, an intruder in this mystic garden of the deep.

    — 

    Professor Pierre Aronnax (narrator) in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

    In celebration of our little Tumblr page reaching 20,000 followers (not to mention our 600th post!), we quote Jules Verne’s literary masterpiece 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. We couldn’t be more honored to have everyone’s fantastic support. Here’s to another 20,000!