“We need falsifications to make the past inhabitable.”

“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.”

“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.”

“If we look straight and deep into a chimpanzee's eyes, an intelligent self-assured personality looks back at us. If they are animals, what must we be?”

“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.”

“Being both more systematically brutal than chimps and more empathetic than bonobos, we are by far the most bipolar ape. Our societies are never completely peaceful, never completely competitive, never ruled by sheer selfishness, and never perfectly moral.”

“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.”