--Jack Kerouac, On The Road
It seems that a profound, impartial, and absolutely just opinion of our fellow-creatures is utterly unknown. Either we are men, or we are women. Either we are cold, or we are sentimental. Either we are young, or growing old. In any case life is but a procession of shadows, and God knows why it is that we embrace them so eagerly, and see them depart with such anguish, being shadows. And why, if this -- and much more than this is true -- why are we yet surprised in the window corner by a sudden vision that the young man in the chair is of all things in the world the most real, the most solid, the best known to us--why indeed? For the moment after we know nothing about him.
Such is the manner of our seeing. Such the conditions of our love.
--Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room
I’m sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.
--J.D. Salinger, Franny And Zooey
The moon had been lighted and was hung in a treetop.
--Stephen Crane, The Red Badge Of Courage
Jesse rounded forward under the towel and cozied his feet in the bath water. It was as if no one else were around and Jesse was once again alone and at ease with his meditations. He said, "I can't figure it out: do you want to be like me, or do you want to be me?”
--Ron Hansen, The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Pretend to be good always and even God will be fooled.
--Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater