“Patience” and “Fortitude”. This is how Fiorello LaGuardia nicknamed in the 1930s the two enormous lion sculptures framing the entrance to the main building of the New York Public Library. A way for the mayor of the city (1934-1945) to pay tribute to the resistance of the inhabitants during the Great Depression. Patience and courage are also embodied in this temple of knowledge in numerous works. A refuge value. A rock. A certainty. A hope.