Here they sat at a social breakfast table–all of the same calling, all of kindred tastes–looking round as sheepishly at each other as though they had never been out of sight of some sheepfold among the Green Mountains.
Chapter 5: Breakfast – Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Coffee drinking in the morning is what makes getting up in the morning such a pleasure, makes life worth living. And coffee gets one moving, and you know: moving is good for you.
It is well known Zeus would sometimes come down from Olympus and walk incognito amongst mortals. Eventually he would be recognized and people would cry out “Hey! Zeus!” …
and He replied “gesundheit” to the faithful.
There’s no way that a map can predict all pitfalls & problems or all pleasant surprises. A map is a metaphor that can point to but not capture the actual journey itself. A map is seen through; the journey is lived through.
Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Circumambulate the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon. What do you see?–Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries.
But these are all landsmen; of week days pent up in lath and plaster–tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks.
How then is this? Are the green fields gone? What do they here? But look! here come more crowds, pacing straight for the water, and seemingly bound for a dive.
Strange! Nothing will content them but the extremest limit of the land; loitering under the shady lee of yonder warehouses will not suffice.
No. They must get just as nigh the water as they possibly can without falling in.
And there they stand–miles of them–leagues. Inlanders all, they come from lanes and alleys, streets and avenues–north, east, south, and west. Yet here they all unite.
Yes, as every one knows, meditation and water are wedded for ever.
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The shadow of an eagle that had set forth from those high and craggy fastnesses crossed the line of riders below and they looked up to mark it where it rode in that brittle blue and faultless void.
Blood Meridian (1985) by Cormac McCarthy
Heaven & earth do not unite… Thus the superior man falls back upon his inner worth in order to escape the difficulties.
The I Ching or Book of Changes
The danger of heaven lies in the fact that one cannot climb it … The effects of the time of danger are truly great.
The I Ching or Book of Changes