Steve Strote

“I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale

“If you wish to inflame man’s desire and so aid conception, strip bark from the trunk of a young oak, in spring when the leaves are not yet sprouting and the sap is rising. Grind to a powder, add pieces of Maral root, pulp of birch catkins, and two teaspoons of caltrop leaves infused in ten drops of vinegar. Mix with lard, bring to a boil, and leave to congeal. Rub on your husband in the evening. Twice a day have him drink tea decocted from caltrop stems. If this is too hot, mix it with spirits.”
― Kateřina Tučková, The Last Goddess

“A certain Herr Schurz, a Prussian politician, once said: ‘My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
― Charles Stross, Dark State