Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end. - Joseph Conrad

It’s extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it’s just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome.

For the great mass of mankind the only saving grace that is needed is steady fidelity to what is nearest to hand and heart in the short moment of each human effort.

I saw him open his mouth wide. . . as though he had wanted to swallow all the air, all the earth, all the men before him.