"This was what was finished on October 7, 1868- this idea of Cornell University. Seventy-five years later there is nothing we could wish to add to it, or anything we could wish to take away. And it is after all the idea that was then, as it is now, the important thing, since it was and is the source of all the rest. In response to this idea the first crude buildings were erected, the first books and apparatus were collected, and the first faculty was assembled. In response to this idea the first students came to be enrolled. And on this seventy-fifth anniversary we shall do well to remember that it is not the buildings however splendid, or the quadrangles however beautiful, but this idea brought to birth by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White- the idea of an institution freed from obligation to religious or political or social prejudice, and devoted to the advancement of knowledge in all fruitful fields of inquiry- it was this idea that then have and still gives to Cornell University whatever high significance and enduring value it may have for learning and for the life of man."
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Cornell University
Cornell University (/kɔːrˈnɛl/ kor-NEL) is a private and statutory Ivy League research university in Ithaca, New York. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, the university was intended to teach and make contributions in all fields of knowledge—from the classics to the sciences, and from the theoretical to the applied. These ideals, unconventional for the time, are captured in Cornell's founding principle, a popular 1868 quotation from founder Ezra Cornell: "I would found an i
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"When the sun fades far away In the crimson of the west, And the voices of the day Murmur low and sink to rest,"
"Music with the twilight falls O'er the dreaming lake and dell; 'Tis an echo from the walls Of our own, our fair Cornell."
"Welcome night and welcome rest; Fading music fare thee well! Joy to all we love the best, Love to thee our fair Cornell!"
"Far above Cayuga's waters, With its waves of blue, Stands our noble Alma Mater, Glorious to view."
"Far above the busy humming Of the bustling town, Reared against the arch of heaven, Looks she proudly down."
"Lift the chorus, speed it onward, Loud her praises tell; Hail to thee, our Alma Mater! Hail, all hail, Cornell!"