words to inspire before you expire
“‘I clearly see . . .
How time is hurrying towards me in order
To deal me such a blow as would be most
Grievous for him who is not set for it;
Thus, it is right to arm myself with foresight,
That if I lose the place most dear, I may
Not lose the rest through what my poems say.'”
—from Canto XVII of Dante’s Paradiso by Dante Alighieri
“Ineluctable modality of the visible: at least that if no more, thought through my eyes. Signatures of all things I am here to read, seaspawn and seawrack, the nearing tide, that rusty boot. Snotgreen, bluesilver, rust: coloured signs. Limits of the diaphane. But he adds: in bodies. Then he was aware of them bodies before of them coloured. How? By knocking his sconce against them, sure. Go easy. Bald he was and a millionaire, maestro di color che sanno. Limit of the diaphane in. Why in? Diaphane, adiaphane. If you can put your five fingers through it, it is a gate, if not a door. Shut your eyes and see.
Stephen closed his eyes to hear his boots crush crackling wrack and shells. You are walking through it howsomever. I am, a stride at a time. A very short space of time through very short times of space. Five, six: the nacheinander. Exactly: and that is the ineluctable modality of the audible. Open your eyes.”
—from Ulysses by James Joyce
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