Salamander

“All English stories get bogged down in whether or not the furniture is socially and aesthetically acceptable.”
― A.S. Byatt, The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye: Five Fairy Stories

“I’ll example you with thievery:
The sun’s a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea; the moon’s an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun;
The sea’s a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears; the earth’s a thief,
That feeds and breeds by a composture stolen
From general excrement: each thing’s a thief.”
― William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens

“He remained annoyed with himself until he realized that not knowing what he wanted was actually quite natural. We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can never compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come.”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“There are even those who say that they are merely minding their own business, whether out of concern for their family's wealth, or from a general distaste for human interaction. And, indeed, they don't seem to do anyone harm. But in escaping one kind of injustice they run right into another, in that they abandon the social aspect of life, giving it no attention, effort or assistance.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Living and Dying Well