“He felt more human with his boots on. A man can face the world with something on his feet.”

“There’s man all over for you, blaming on his boots the faults of his feet.”

“For how can a man stand, unless he have something sure under his feet. Can a man tread the unstable water all his life, and call that standing? Better give in and drown at once.”

“Dragon was controlling himself admirably but he had the look of a man who has found something unpleasant on his boot.”

“After some time he felt for his pipe. It was not broken, and that was something. Then he felt for his pouch, and there was some tobacco in it, and that was something more. Then he felt for matches and he could not find any at all, and that shattered his hopes completely.”

“Man stands face to face with the irrational. He feels within him his longing for happiness and for reason. The absurd is born of this confrontation between the human need and the unreasonable silence of the world.”