We must make the best use that we can of the things which are in our power, and use the rest according to their nature. Discourses

“Biology enables, Culture forbids.” Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible; Shakespeare's plays, for instance, seem to hang there complete by themselves. But when the web is pulled askew, hooked up at the edge, torn in the middle, one remembers that these webs are not spun in midair by incorporeal creatures, but are the work of suffering human beings, and are attached to the grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in. A Room of One's Own

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained. Mark Twain's Notebook