Sofia

“Any dictionary, no matter how well made, was destined to go out of date. Words were living things.”
― Shion Miura, The Great Passage

“In the bleak years that followed, legends abounded as to what had become of her. There was talk of a girl at the bottom of the sea, or hiding somewhere else to prepare her revenge. The people, oppressed by the king's madness, made her into their secret heroine. That is the way stories are born, when small mysteries meet dark times.”
― Timothée de Fombelle, Le Livre de Perle

“The dictionary’s very flaws made the exertions and enthusiasm of its compilers real to his imagination. The vast array of words—entry words, definitions, examples—was cold and impersonal at a glance, yet the book as a whole was the result of people puzzling over their choices.”
― Shion Miura, The Great Passage

“A dictionary is a ship that crosses the sea of words,” said Araki, with a sense that he was laying bare his innermost soul. “People travel on it and gather the small points of light floating on the dark surface of the waves. They do this in order to tell someone their thoughts accurately, using the best possible words. Without dictionaries, all any of us could do is linger before the vastness of the deep.”
― Shion Miura, The Great Passage