On a wall outside of the United Nations building in New York
is the quotation from Isaiah, "They will beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall
not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war
any more." Interestingly, the chapel within the building is
nondenominational, but still, these words from the Bible serve
to define the United Nation's mission.
A good example of an inscription which is purely secular yet
powerful is the one that wraps around the giant Corinthian
colonnade—the largest in the world—of New York City's main
Post Office of 1912 by McKim, Mead and White:
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these
couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.
HYLAND
