si bene calculum ponas, ubique naufragium est.
If you reflect well on it, life is a shipwreck everywhere.

from Petronius' Satyricon



"The library in Bridgeport has big stone steps and high pillars. It's what he first thought of when he heard that Samuel was serving the Lord in the temple of Shiloh. A temple is different from a church. Jews go to temple and Christians go to church. But Catholics go to Catholic church. And everybody goes to the library."

-Steven Millhauser, "The Voice in the Night"




I am a very bad airplane and can only
play dangerous, unwinnable games
with the other anxiety machines.

-Marc McKee, "Child Recruit" from _What Apocalypse?_




The human heart is vast enough to contain all the world.

-Joseph Conrad, _Lord Jim_




Tis Miracle before Me--then--
Tis Miracle behind--between--
A Crescent in the Sea--
With Midnight to the North of Her--
And Midnight to the South of Her--
And Maelstrom--in the Sky--

-Emily Dickinson 721