Quote of the Day

"Only history itself can convince you of such a truth. And once you've seen that truth, really seen it, you can't look away." Elizabeth Kostova

(image via design love fest)

Quote of the Day

"At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can."

-Frida Kahlo

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The Librarian Suggests

Is poetry dying? It sure does seem like it, but it's not! Is poetry still relevant, absolutely! And it's our jobs as librarians to keep it alive. Find a short poem and carry it with you, read it to yourself everyday for the rest of the month and hold on to it, hold on to the words, memorize it, and feel the emotion. I will leave you with this poem by one of our favorites, Mary Oliver. 

"There are moments that cry out to be fulfilled.

Like telling someone you love them. 

Or giving your money away, all of it.

Your heart is beating, isn't it?

You're not in chains, are you?

There is nothing more pathetic than caution,

when headlong might save a life, 

even, possibly, your own." 

Quote of the Day

"What is success? It is being able to go to bed each night with your soul at peace." 

-Paulo Coelho

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Quote of the Day

"The best thing you can do for yourself is to be well read and travel often."

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Quote of the Day

"Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better."

-Flannery O'Connor

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Quote of the Day

"Libraries are a statement of our collective priorities." 

-NYPL Card Catalog Quotes

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Poem of the Day

...Remember the old dogs

who fought so well:

Hemingway, Celine, Dostoevsky, Hamsun.

If you think they didn't go crazy in tiny rooms

Just like you're doing now

without women

without food

without hope

then you're not ready.

And I laughed out loud. Because it's always the way - when you're alone and feeling like could jump off the edge of the world, that's when they find you and tell you they all went through the same thing.

And it makes you feel special because you feel like of all the people in all the world, these yearsdead writers wrote whatever it was that made the blood run in your veins again, just for you. 

And you say their names out loud when you walk the city in the middle of the night, and you feel close to something timeless; you feel like someone just lay you down on your back and showed you the sky. 

-Kate Tempest

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Quote of the Day

"I hope to arrive to my death, late, in love, and a little drunk."

-Atticus

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Life Lessons from Ole Golly

Five Life Lessons in Quotes from the beloved children's literature character: Ole Golly

"You know what? You're an individual, and that makes people nervous. And it's gonna keep making people nervous for the rest of your life."

"Just because you're alone doesn't mean the world stops turning."

"If you’re missing me, I want you to know that I am not missing you. Gone is gone. I never miss anything or anyone because it all becomes a lovely memory. I guard my memories and love them, but I don’t get in them and lie down. You can even make stories from yours but they don’t come back. Just think how awful it would be if they did. You don’t need me now. You’re…old enough to get busy at growing up to be the person you want to be."

"Well, you must realize, Harriet, knowing everything won't do you a bit of good unless you use it to put beauty in this world. True or false?" 

"There are as many ways to live in this world as there are people in this world, and each one deserves a closer look." 

(1, 2, 3)

October

O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;

One from our trees, one far away.

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.

Slow, slow!

For the grapes’ sake, if they were all,

Whose leaves already are burnt with frost,

Whose clustered fruit must else be lost—

For the grapes’ sake along the wall.

-Robert Frost

(image via)

Quote of the Day

"It is not true that people stop pursuing dreams because they grow old, they grow old because they stop pursuing dreams." -Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

(image via a well traveled woman)

Quote of the Day

'I'm not sure what I'll do, but-well, i want to go places and see people. I want my mind to grow. I want to live where things happen on a big scale." 

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

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Quote of the Day

"The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking." -Albert Einstein 

(image via annnniegirl)

Quote of the Day

"It's best to be honest and truthful, to make the most of what you have, to be happy with simple pleasures, and to have courage when things don't go your way."

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Indian Summer at Dusk

Lyric night of the lingering Indian Summer,

Shadowy fields that are scentless but full of singing,

Never a bird, but the passionless chant of insects,

    Ceaseless, insistent.

The grasshopper’s horn, and far-off, high in the maples,

The wheel of a locust leisurely grinding the silence

Under a moon waning and worn, broken,

    Tired with summer.

Let me remember you, voices of little insects,

Weeds in the moonlight, fields that are tangled with asters,

Let me remember, soon will the winter be on us,

    Snow-hushed and heavy.

Over my soul murmur your mute benediction,

While I gaze, O fields that rest after harvest,

As those who part look long in the eyes they lean to,

    Lest they forget them.

(image via, text via sara teasdale, 1914)

Quote of the Day

"Every person needs to take one day away. A day in which one consciously separates the past from the future...A day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for."

-Maya Angelou

(image via she believed she could so she did)

Quote of the Day

"A hundred million miracles are happening everyday."-Oscar Hammerstein II

(images via art)

Quote of the Day

"You can never be overdressed or overeducated."-Oscar Wilde

(image via modern girls and old fashion men)

October Gave A Party

October gave a party

The leaves by hundreds came-

The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,

And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet,

And everything was grand,

Miss Weather led the dancing,

Professor Wind the band.

The Chestnuts came in yellow,

The Oaks in crimson dressed;

The lovely Misses Maple

In scarlet looked their best;

All balanced to their partners,

And gaily fluttered by;

The sight was like a rainbow

New fallen from the sky.

Then, in the rustic hollow,

At hide-and-seek they played,

The party closed at sundown,

And everybody stayed.

Professor Wind played louder;

They flew along the ground;

And then the party ended

In jolly "hands around."

-George Cooper

(image via amandaaa)