Sandra

“There were no battlefields now, but enemies were everywhere. Defenses were up all over the place, but defense was impossible. He could retreat no further. No longer wildly hoping for anything more, all he wanted was a house in a village, where he could settle down with a wife, but even that possibility was about to vanish.
Before dawn, he got the bicycle back to the village. Huang and his wife had waited for him. [...] Before leaving, he waved to them and said that he hadn't been there. They said, of course you haven't, of course you haven't. He had done all he could, the rest was up to fate.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible

“You're light, and float up as if you're weightless. You wander from country to country, city to city, woman to woman, but don't think of finding a place that is home. You drift along, engrossed in savoring the taste of the written language, and, like ejaculating, leave behind some traces of your life. You achieve nothing and no longer concern yourself with things in life and afterlife. As your life was plucked back from death, why should you be concerned? You simply live in this instant, like a leaf in the brink of falling from a tree.”
― Gao Xingjian, One Man's Bible

“Out of his other property, out of all the things he had collected, his silver, his pictures, his houses, his investments, he got a secret and intimate feeling; out of her he got none.”
― John Galsworthy, The Man of Property

“HATE FOR HATE — AND RUTH FOR RUTH,
EYE FOR EYE — AND TOOTH FOR TOOTH,
SCORN FOR SCORN — AND SMILE FOR SMILE,
LOVE FOR LOVE — AND GUILE FOR GUILE,
WAR FOR WAR, — AND WOE FOR WOE,
BLOOD FOR BLOOD — AND BLOW FOR BLOW.”
― Ragnar Redbeard, Might is Right