Man is the only kind of varmint sets his own trap, baits it, then steps in it. – John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday

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

I do not value any view of the universe into which man and the institutions of man enter very largely and absorb much of the attention. Man is but the place where I stand, and the prospect hence is infinite. – Henry David Thoreau, journal, 1852 April 2nd