I was right not to be afraid of any thief but myself, who will end by leaving me nothing. – Katherine Anne Porter

When I dance, I dance; when I sleep, I sleep. Nay, and when I walk alone in a beautiful Orchard, if my Thoughts are some part of the Time taken up with strange Occurrences, I some part of the Time call them back again to my Walk, or to the Orchard, to the Sweetness of the Solitude, and to my self. – Michel de Montaigne, “Of Experience,” translated from French by Charles Cotton

A man is ever apt to contemplate himself out of all proportion to his surroundings. – Christina G. Rossetti