“It does not pay to cherish symbols when the substance lies so close at hand.”
“The symbol is greater than visible substance. . . . Unhappy the land that has no symbols, or that chooses their meaning without great care.”
“so I love you because I know no other way than this: where I does not exist, nor you,so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.”
“Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one's life away.”
“Survival lies in sanity, and sanity lies in paying attention...the capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.”
“In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time: the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.”