Ah! These commercial interests -- spoiling the finest life under the sun. Why must the sea be used for trade -- and for war as well?...It would have been so much nicer just to sail about, with here and there a port and a bit of land to stretch one's legs on, buy a few books and get a change of cooking for a while.

The sea has never been friendly to man. At most it has been the accomplice of human restlessness.

Every age is fed on illusions, lest men should renounce life early and the human race come to an end.

Who would care to question the ground of forgiveness or compassion.

I found myself back in the sepulchral city resenting the sight of people hurrying through the streets to filch a little money from each other, to devour their infamous cookery, to gulp their unwholesome beer, to dream their insignificant and silly dreams. They trespassed upon my thoughts.

The dreams of men, the seed of commonwealth, the germs of empires.

You can't breathe dead hippo waking, sleeping, and eating, and at the same time keep your precarious grip on existence.