Fish and visitors stink after three days. - Ursula K. Le Guin

Indeed, until she had met Lev at school, it had not occurred to her that anyone might prefer to speak a plain fact rather than a lie that sounded well. People said what suited their purposes, when they were serious; and when they weren’t serious, they talked without meaning anything at all.

The bond between true lovers is as close as we come to what endures forever.

Yet we were rescued by that fancy, and saved by a myth.