If only I could leave everything as it is, without moving a single star or a single cloud. Oh, if only I could! – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Two and two the mathematician continues to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five. – James McNeill Whistler, Whistler Versus Ruskin, 1878

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered. – Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

I am the Love Cactus. Make desert to me. – Jarod Kintz, My love can only occupy one person at a time