Although this road winds tortuously at times, and even appears to turn back upon itself so that we seem to return again and again to the same place, patient plodding does result in progress.
If the space terms predominate in the expression for the interval between event-points, the interval is said to be space-like, since it is then possible to select a co-ordinate system–belonging to an observer with an admissible velocity, in which the events appear simultaneous, and therefore separated only spatially.
If, however, the interval is time-like the events cannot be simultaneous in any co-ordinate system, but there exists a co-ordinate system in which the space terms will vanish entirely, so that the separation between events will be purely temporal, id est, occurring at the same place, but at different times.
A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1959)
MACBETH: Speak if you can. What are you? FIRST WITCH: All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! SECOND WITCH All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! THIRD WITCH All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter! BANQUO Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear things that do sound so fair? I’ th’ name of truth, are you fantastical, or that indeed which outwardly you show? My noble partner you greet with present grace and great prediction of noble having and of royal hope, that he seems rapt withal.
MACBETH Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more. A prosperous gentleman, and to be king stands not within the prospect of belief. Witches vanish. BANQUO The earth hath bubbles, as the water has, and these are of them. Whither are they vanished? MACBETH Into the air, and what seemed corporal melted, as breath into the wind. Would they had stayed! BANQUO Were such things here as we do speak about? Or have we eaten on the insane root that takes the reason prisoner? MACBETH Your children shall be kings. BANQUO You shall be king.
It is the part of ourselves we do not normally admit to consciousness, let alone expression in action, that slips past the inner censor into our dreams and fantasies.
OUR REBEL EMOTIONSby Bernard Mobbs (1970)
This devilishly charming fellow is only a human nature characteristic. He is human nature itself; the corporeal personality honoring, respecting, reverencing, adoring and worshipping itself as king and as god in his own world.
THE WORD – A PHILOSOPHY (1958) by Edna Sarah Beardsley (re: devil)
There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since the first two pass our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third.