If you find yourself bored in Butler Library’s Reference Room, look up on the north wall. You’ll see inscribed, “MAN IS BUT ALL HE KNOWTH.” Mottos should pithily describe the ethos of a group, institution, or in this case, a library, but this one falls flat. The saying suggests men become better through imbibing copious amounts of knowledge, presumably the type you come across in an Ivy League library. But how can those creatures that crawl out of Butler at all hours of the day reasonably qualify as “men” (or women)?
