Duarte Grilo

“Sim, a selva era bela, majestosa, mesmo deslumbrante. E era rica, havia de ser fantasticamente rica também, mas um dia – um dia que vinha ainda longe. Entretanto, toda a sua grandeza esmagaria, toda a sua deslumbrância seria volúpia do primeiro contacto, logo desvanecida pela monotonia; e os anónimos desbravadores iriam caindo, inexoravelmente, sob as febres, trespassados pelas flechas envenenadas, desvairados pela ausência do amor – escravos, pobres, miseráveis, ali onde a natureza erguia as suas mais fastigiosas pompas!”
― Ferreira de Castro, A Selva

“Above all, do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday, I walk myself into a state of well-being & walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, & the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill. Thus if one just keeps on walking, everything will be all right.”
― Søren Kierkegaard

“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

“And let them first pray together, that so they may associate in peace.”
― St. Benedict of Nursia, The Rule of Saint Benedict