Tim Martin

“The essence of dietrologia is that it dismisses the notion that anyone could act purely for reasons of moral conviction.”
― John Hooper, The Italians

“Only one story—the story of the dinosaurs themselves—had a happy ending. Happy in comparison, at any rate. Dinosaurs will be famous forever, first of all, and, what is more important, they were granted an enviable finale. Dinosaurs reigned unchallenged for an unimaginable one hundred million years. Then, in a cataclysm that reverberated around the globe, with no warning, no foreboding, no lingering, they vanished.”
― Edward Dolnick, Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World

“They always build as if they expect to live for eternity; they always eat as if they expect to die the next day.”
― John Keahey, Seeking Sicily: A Cultural Journey Through Myth and Reality in the Heart of the Mediterranean

“But you know better than I, Prince, that even fixed stars are so only in appearance.”
― Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard