“...Orm always afterwards used to say that, after good luck, strength, and skill at arms, nothing was so useful to a man who found himself among foreigners as the ability to learn a language.”

“Mulled ale for the frozen man,And mulled ale for the weary:For mulled ale is the body's friendAnd makes the sick heart merry.”

“A wise man, once he is past fifty, does not befuddle his senses with strong drink, nor make violent love in the cool spring night, nor dance on his hands.”

“Hvorledes skulle det gå, hvis man slap nordboerne ind i himlen ? I ville gribe efter de hellige jomfruer med utugtig tale, udstøde et hærskrig over for serafer og ærkeengle og skråle efter øl, når I stod ansigt til ansigt med Gud.”

“I heard wordOf bellied sailcloth,Creak of oars,And gold in Eastland.Then I smelledA smell remembered:Salt of sprayAnd black-pitched boat's keel.”

“[Patricia Greenfield] concluded that “every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others.” Our growing use of the Net and other screen-based technologies has led to the “widespread and sophisticated development of visual-spatial skills.” We can, for example, rotate objects in our minds better than we used to be able to. But our “new strengths in visual-spatial intelligence” go hand in hand with a weakening of our capacities for the kind of “deep processing” that underpins “mindful knowledge acquisition, inductive analysis, critical thinking, imagination, and reflection.”

“Smaak heeft de pad die naar de weegbree kruipt wanneer hij door een spin gebeten is. Smaak leidt het varken naar de truffel, de misselijke hond naar het gras, de bizon over duizenden mijlen naar de zoutsteen. Smaak heeft de zwaluw die de blindheid van haar jongen wil genezen en vanzelf de weg vindt naar het sap van de stinkende gouwe.”