It has been said repeatedly that one can never, try as he will, get around to the front of the universe. Man is destined to see only its far side, to realize nature only in retreat. – Loren Eiseley, “The Innocent Fox,” The Star Thrower, 1978
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
If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream, and have a flower presented to him as a pledge that his soul had really been there, and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake — Aye, what then? – Samuel Taylor Coleridge