Take the so-called standard of living. What do most people mean by “living”? They don’t mean living. They mean the latest and closest plural approximation to singular prenatal passivity which science, in its finite but unbounded wisdom, has succeeded in selling their wives. – e.e. cummings, Introduction, Poems, 1954

I would go to heaven, but I would take my hell; I would not go alone. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Our dream dashes itself against the great mystery like a wasp against a window pane. Less merciful than man, God never opens the window. – Jules Renard, Journal, 1906