Spencer

“Of all the mad things we humans do, Rex once told him, there might be nothing more humbling, or more noble, than trying to translate the dead languages. We don’t know how the old Greeks sounded when they spoke; we can scarcely map their words onto ours; from the very start, we’re doomed to fail. But in the attempt, Rex said, in trying to drag something across the river from the murk of history into our time, into our language: that was, he said, the best kind of fool’s errand. Zeno sharpens his pencil and tries again.”
― Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land

“In the scullery she says, if the end of the world is upon them, they might as well finish all the wine.”
― Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land

“Each sign signifies a sound, and to link sounds is to form words, and to link words is to construct worlds.”
― Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land

“Boats motor back and forth, unzipping the water.”
― Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land