“What is there in thee, Man, that can be known?Dark fluxion, all unfixable by thought,A phantom dim of past and future wrought,Vain sister of the worm ...”

“She was in that highly-wrought state when the reasoning powers act with great rapidity: the state a man is in before a battle or a struggle, in danger, and at the decisive moments of life - those moments when a man shows once and for all what he is worth, that his past was not lived in vain but was a preparation for these moments.”

“the past is known, but the future can sometimes be troublesome!”

“Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean - roll!Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;Man marks the earth with ruin - his controlStops with the shore.”

“In the life of a man, his time is but a moment, his being an incessant flux, his sense a dim rushlight, his body a prey of worms, his soul an unquiet eddy, his fortune dark, his fame doubtful. In short, all that is body is as coursing waters, all that is of the soul as dreams and vapors.”

“Have you never heard what the wise man say : all of the future exists in the past.”