Out of a hundred years a few minutes were made that stayed with me, not a hundred years. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Life is so largely controlled by chance that its conduct can be but a perpetual improvisation. – W. Somerset Maugham