I was surprised just now at seeing a cobweb around a knocker; for it was not on the door of heaven. – Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers

Many people believe that they are attracted by God, or by Nature, when they are only repelled by man. – William Ralph Inge

It is curious to note the old sea-margins of human thought! Each subsiding century reveals some new mystery; we build where monsters used to hide themselves. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh, 1849

It is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing. – Mariane Moore, “A Grave,” Collected Poems, 1951