"Pray look upon the plants and birds,..." - Quote by Marcus Aurelius

“Soon you will have forgotten the world, and soon the world will have forgotten you.”

“Man must be arched and buttressed from within, else the temple wavers to the dust.”

“Life is a campaign, a brief staying in a strange region.”

“Go out of the house to see the moon, and't is mere tinsel; it will not please as when its light shines upon your necessary journey.”

“In the end, for me, the sole single goal is to write the best novel that I can. Whether or not it gets made or gets purchased.”

“Find a way to get paid for doing what you love. Then every paycheck will be a bonus.”

“Salt water when it turns into vapour becomes sweet, and the vapour does not form salt water when it condenses again. This I know by experiment. The same thing is true in every case of the kind: wine and all fluids that evaporate and condense back into a liquid state become water. They all are water modified by a certain admixture, the nature of which determines their flavour.”

“Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.”

“Homer and Shakespeare and Milton and Marvell and Wordsworth are but the rustling of leaves and crackling of twigs in the forest, and there is not yet the sound of any bird. The Muse has never lifted up her voice to sing.”