Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. – St.Augustine

Leaving home in a sense involves a kind of second birth in which we give birth to ourselves. – Robert Neelly Bellah, Habits of the Heart, 1985

A man may be so much of everything that he is nothing of anything. – Samuel Johnson, Boswell, Life of Johnson, 1783

A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born. РAntoine de Saint-Exup̩ry, Flight to Arras, 1942, translated from French