Fame is not won on downy plumes nor under canopies; the man who consumes his days without obtaining it leaves such mark of himself on earth as smoke in air or foam on water.

Be as a tower firmly set; Shakes not its top for any blast that blows.

As the geometer intently seeks to square the circle, but he cannot reach, through thought on thought, the principle he needs, so I searched that strange sight.

And when he had put his hand on mine with a cheerful look, wherefrom I took courage, he brought me within to the secret things. Here sighs, laments, and deep wailings were resounding through the starless air; wherefore at first I wept thereat. Strange tongues, horrible utterances, words of woe, accents of anger, voices high and faint, and sounds of hands with them, were making a tumult which whirls always in that air forever dark, like the sand when the whirlwind breathes.

Lost are we, and are only so far punished, That without hope we live on in desire.

Now you know how much my love for you burns deep in me when I forget about our emptiness, and deal with shadows as with solid things.

Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction.