Whatever I take, I take too much or too little; I do not take the exact amount. The exact amount is no use to me. – Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943, translated from Spanish by W.S. Merwin

[T]hings are entirely what they appear to be and behind them… there is nothing. – Jean Paul Sartre, Nausea

Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. – Eric Hoffer, Passionate State of Mind, 1955