The universe (which others call the Library) is composed of an indefinite and perhaps infinite number of hexagonal galleries, with vast air shafts between, surrounded by very low railings. From any of the hexagons one can see, interminably, the upper and lower floors.
Jorge Luis Borges in The Garden of Forking Paths, The Library of Babel (1941), translated by James E. Irby
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Related quotes
I think there is some kind of divine order in the universe. Every leaf on every tree in the world is unique. As far as we can see, there are other galaxies, all slowly spinning, numerous as the leaves in the forest. In an infinite number of planets, there has to be an infinite number with life forms on them. Maybe this planet is one of the discarded mistakes. Maybe it's one of the victories. We'll never know.
quote by John D. MacDonald
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Open Book's Monologue Part 5: Welcome To The Library!
Welcome to the library! come one come all
Welcome to the library! come with your brethren on this wall
Welcome to the library! come all you books tattered or new
Welcome to the library! come tired and overdue
Yes welcome to the library the place where you're most mundane
Yes welcome to the library the place where you're to endure most pain
Yes welcome to the library where you'll sit unwanted
Yes welcome to the library where you'll sit haunted
Yes welcome to the library where everyone's just like you
Yes welcome to the library where we're all books too!
Yes welcome to the library where you can take comfort
Yes welcome to the library where In the fact you're no longer unique
Yes welcome to the library You're just pen marks ink
Departing the library? I think not, even if you get out we'll bring you back
Departing the library? Here you rot, but we'll dust you to ease your passing
Departing the library? Don't make me laugh, here you're black and white
Departing the library? Nobody argues on your behalf, look more amassing
Welcome to the library! A place of keeping and safety
Welcome to the library! Take your place you'll like it, just wait and see
Welcome to the library! New books don't mind the old they're disillusioned
Welcome to the library! You've sold your soul... but it's too late for you
so WELCOME
poem by David Knox
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Airways
Two ways
Upper and lower.
Voice box is there
At the top
Words and poems
In its natural form
With the mob.
When air passes
With words
It is amazing.
Poet is musician
Of life
with pleasant
And muster.
Two ways
Upper and lower
In this airways
Human instincts
Is to go upper
And upper to
Make life better
And better.
In either ways
Poet is the
Lighter and
The craftmaster.
poem by Gajanan Mishra
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Lines consist of an infinite number of points; planes an infinite number of lines; volumes an infinite number of planes, hypervolumes an infinite number of volumes... No, this, this more geometrico, is definitely not the best way to begin my tale. Affirming a fantastic tale's truth is now a story-telling convention; mine, though, is true.
Jorge Luis Borges in The Book of Sand (1975)
Submitted by Dan Costinaş
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Love In The Library
Love in the library
By: jimmy buffett, mac mcanally
1994
On the corner of government and bay avenue
The old doomsday fanatic wore a crown of kudzu
Sirens were wailing in the gulf coastal heat
And it seemed like the whole world was in forced retreat
Paid no attention, revolved through the door
Past the newspaper racks on the worn marble floor
Near civil war history my heart skipped a beat
She was standing in fiction stretched high on bare feet
Chorus:
Love in the library
Quiet and cool
Love in the library
There are no rules
Surrounded by stories
Surreal and sublime
I fell in love in the library
Once upon a time
I was the pirate, she was the queen
Sir francis and elizabeth, the best theres ever been
Then she strolled past my table and stopped at the stairs
Then sent me a smile as she reached for flaubert
Chorus:
Love in the library
Quiet and cool
Love in the library
There are no rules
Surrounded by stories
Surreal and sublime
I fell in love in the library
Once upon a time
She gathered her books, walked while she read
Words never spoken, but so much was said
You can read all you want into this rendezvous
But its safer than most things that lovers can do
Well stories have endings, fantasies fade
And the guard by the door starts drawing the shade
So write your own ending and hope it comes true
For the lovers and strangers on bay avenue
Chorus:
Love in the library
Quiet and cool
Love in the library
There are no rules
Surrounded by stories
Surreal and sublime
I fell in love in the library
Once upon a time
Surrounded by stories
Surreal and sublime
I fell in love in the library
Once upon a time
song performed by by Jimmy Buffett
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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But Whole
No fraction but whole
No part no term
No denominator
No numerator
No zero
No alteration
Value more and more
And the common factor
In both upper and lower
Number non-zero
And always assured.
poem by Gajanan Mishra
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Well, I mean, we are developing the other parts, and we can't give quite all our attention to the upper part, but soon the lower parts will be developed, and the upper part and the lower part will become partners, that will be wonderful.
quote by Ninette de Valois
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Infinetry
If the universe is of infinite size
On just one planet would life arise?
Or are there many where life can swarm,
Advanced like us and of similar form?
In lands bizarre and on planets strange,
Do alien writers their words arrange?
So do we live in a universe
Where infinite poets write infinite verse?
poem by Dennis N. O'Brien
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We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering.
quote by Carl Sagan
Submitted by Catalin Popescu
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Bonus Track
I hope you enjoyed your ride on the terror wheel. but it isnt over
Just yet. we have a phone number for you to call to hear the name
Of the third jokers card. the area code is 1-313, and for the rest
Of it, listen to the rhymes and match the numbers that go with them.
Ahahahahaha!!!
Call 1-313...
Call 1-313...
Call 1-313...
Call 1-313...
The rest
Unlock the door, and whats in store
Will be with you forever more
The number is (four)
Ive come to relate I never saw the gate
All I saw was hate
So the number is (eight)
Everywhere I go theres a juggalo
And hes my hero
The number is (zero)
The juggalos key will forever be
Hand in hand with me
The number is (three)
The essence of time, yours was mine
Inside the rhyme you will find
The number (nine)
The moon and the sun, the sword and the gun
Is what Ive become
Now the number is (one)
Now I will go a carnival show
Figure out the rhymes and youll know
The last number (zero)
(phone number: 1-313-480-3910)
Call to reveal the third jokers card
Call to reveal the third jokers card
song performed by by Insane Clown Posse
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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There's not a good poet I know who has not at the beck and call of his memory a vast quantity of poetry that composes his mental library.
quote by Anthony Hecht
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Alone
He put the gum in his right
lower pocket, where it belonged;
The Certs in this heat melted, staining his right
upper pocket, a crying shame.
The green stone went in his left
upper pocket along with the key to nothing;
the robin's egg nestled in his left
lower pocket but never hatched.
He crisscrossed the flats between
the two rocky spires and, every day,
wished he had a compass
or to find anything that could control
his life's motion.
But he never found that thing,
except for thre head-bones of a cow,
and he could not contrive a place
for them, so he buried them and mourned:
Later on he died alone.
poem by Stan Petrovich
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Flattening Bubble...
I am neither,
a living or a nonliving,
Neither born nor die,
Where can I find and see,
Sea and sky
Men and woman,
Everywhere the same
Fatherless, motherless,
Brotherless,
Sisterless,
Friendless,
Formless,
Nameless,
Truth shines;
The father
The mother,
The brother,
The sister,
the friend of all,
Truth shines;
Everywhere? Anywhere?
Now and then?
Whenever I need
Wherever I call,
Wherever I forget
My ego and limitations,
No, I am that infinitesimal bubble,
Floating with infinite number of infinite number of infinitesimal bubbles
On that fathomless bottomless ocean!
But when that air of ego that fills the bubble less and less,
The bubble that flatten and touches the ocean to become one with that!
poem by Ramdas Bhandarkar
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Heaven Sent
Your eyes are like deep wells of desire
Once in your arms Im on fire
You were sent girl so perfectly true
Changing my life
Now Im a survivor
Heaven sent
Thats what I call you
Heaven sent
Thats what I call you
Late at night when the evening fire has died
Theres a look in your eye
Seductive images fly
Heaven sent
Thats what I call you
Heaven sent
Thats what I call you
One day youll see what angels can see
Dressed in black if she comes back
I think Ill lose my mind
Tuesday she works
In the library uptown
Some useful knowledge
Can always be found
Dont burn the library
Till youve read all the books
Sometimes in life
You get a second look
Heaven sent
Thats what I call you
Heaven sent
Thats what I call you
Heaven sent
Thats what I call you
Heaven sent
Thats what I call you
Heaven sent
Heaven sent
Heaven sent
Heaven sent
Heaven sent
song performed by by INXS
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Unmoved Mover, see who am I!
The Unmoved Mover!
The universe that moving,
The universe that is changing,
The universe that is playing,
Projecting and hiding,
Playing that hide and seek,
Who is that hides and who is that seeks,
Who is that moving the infinite universe?
The one, who that can Be moved by prayers,
Does he really move,
And can He move, before He move worlds for us?
He is infinite, filling all space,
Can he move the universe,
can he move it without the space
Can He move it without 'Time'
When He fills the space,
how can he move himself
or how can he move something in space?
He is the Unmoved Mover of universe,
He himself created room,
He Himself moved Himself in Himself
Creating Himself the time and space,
He Himself manifested at different points
And keeping space between these points,
Infinite He split himself into elements
five or a few
And created particles and forces between,
That expanded matter and space,
Created events,
so that the time has any meaning,
He Himself became nucleotides and cells,
Joined them as building blocks,
To build house for himself,
And became homesick always,
Yet wept for his lost glory and beauty,
Wanted to have back all that lost and hide,
When He was busy in building a nest for own!
He was thinker without brain,
And He is that,
He is I am,
'I am' is he,
If you ask 'who are you thee and
where are you thee? '
He replies, Iam tree in this tree,
I am the stone in this stone,
I am the star in this star,
Iam the air in atmosphere,
Iam the water in rivers and ocean,
I am the bacteria in this bacterial house,
Iam the bull in this bulls body,
I am the grass at your feet,
I am you in your body,
I am that in which I feel,
When you ask me who are me,
I say I a proud Hindu,
Or I say I am a proud sikh
Or I am a proud muslim
Or I am proud Christian,
Or A proud Aryan But I fail to say,
I am humble human,
Iam like point in infinite
universe, and is a child of God, all
are his children, so we are
brother and sisters!
And I am that infinite when I am in my own infinite glory and infinite beauty!
Look through you, I look at myself,
Look around, I look at myself from all around,
Look I am talking to myself,
I am that call myself as you when I see from that point from this point of space and time, both which have no existence without my folly in wisdom or wisdom in folly!
poem by Ramdas Bhandarkar
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Books in a large university library system: 2,000,000. Books in an average large city library: 10,000. Average number of books in a chain bookstore: 30,000. Books in an average neighborhood branch library: 20,000.
quote by Anthony Burgess
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Indefinite Pronouns and the Universe
He said;
his arm flowing outward;
'The problem of the 21st Century
is the Indefinite Pronoun.
We're all everyone and no one
indefinite;
pronoun, but not a noun
the universal vagueness
of time, meaning, and identity,
rather like the cloud of electrons
flying around the nucleus of the atom
there and not there;
but capable of being anywhere
or in two places at the same time;
holding many beliefs constantly shifting,
feeling fervently one thing and its opposites
the next minute,
being who am I this minute
and not who I am the next minute;
in a world changing fast
speeding up
and speeding up faster
and faster;
indistinct
shadowy
flashing lights
spark
racing by
approaching
and not approaching the speed of light.
There I'm me, us
none of us;
we,
I
have said it;
both me?
The Indefinite Pronoun Defined
'Singular: another, anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, little, much, neither, nobody, no one, nothing, one, other, somebody, someone, something
Plural: both, few, many, others, several.
Singular or Plural: all, any, more, most, none, some'
--
Is this a bizarre definition or what?
More bizarre, if this definition is literally true.
Modern Physics says this definition is literally true;
an accurate description of us and the universe
in which we live,
things popping in and out of existence.
We live in this universe and most likely have to come to
understand, like the indefinite pronoun,
we too, as individuals
and as collectives,
pop in and out of existence.
Not duality,
but multiplicities.
How else to explain
how we can harbor contradictory
beliefs;
sometime many many
in a single day?
And feelings too.
Am I changed in all of this
or merely your view of me?
Devil or Saint?
Depends apparently
upon what
time it is.
poem by Lonnie Hicks
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Zero Covers All
Lately I realize.
I am a numb number,
living through life.
First child.
Date of birth.
Sixth star of twenty-seven.
Scorpio numbers six of twelve.
Studied tenth class,
Then 5-year’s graduation,
Every class I had a scroll number.
Exams written on id number.
Studied law.
Head churning three years,
with numbered sections.
Penal code, constitution.
Clauses of law in numbered sects.
Registered in bar council.
Legal practice.
Case files are numbered.
Subsequently I got,
House number, door number.
Phone number.
Mobile number.
Account numbers.
Credit card number.
Pan card number,
Folio numbers,
Car number,
License number,
Policy number,
Health card number,
Election card number,
Passport number,
Ration card number,
Ultimately, when you put me in morgue,
allotted me a number.
Which, I do no know.
However, I know a number.
I am a big zero.
It covers all my life
Yes, we discovered zero.
What a relief?
Does it not cover all?
fulfill all values!
By the way your number please?
X number or N number?
Infinite numbers.
________________
poem by Satheesan Rangorath
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Infinite Consciousness
Perception of solidity
is the brain’s interpretation of
various frequencies
Received as biochemical and
electrical signals from the
physical senses
Which the mind weaves into
the beautiful illusions of
reality
Consciousness energy creates the
universe by projecting through
the interference patterns of
waves of energy
We and all we perceive are manifestations
of the consciousness which created
this - our universe
In fact, we ARE this consciousness that always is,
that is never gained or lost, that only changes form
We are part of Infinite Consciousness while
physical form is just a receptacle, particles
which began as infinite possibilities in the
wave-interference-pattern
When conscious energy is applied like light
shining on a three-dimensional holographic
image, the particles become fixed in time
and space to create the illusion which
we call The Universe
poem by Margaret Alice Second
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Vast Times And Vast Spaces
VAST TIMES AND VAST SPACES
Vast times and vast spaces
Preceded our being here
Vast times and vast spaces
Will be should we disappear-
Yet our hearts tell us
A revelation from God we be-
And wherever the Universe takes us
We’ll go on for Infinity.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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