T.S. Eliot

"To whom I owe the leaping delight
That quickens my sense in our waking time
And the rhythm that governs the repose of our
sleeping time, The breathing in unison"

“A Dedication to My Wife”
from The Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot 1909-1962
Harcourt Brace & Co

Eva Hoffman

"Two physical objects cannot occupy the same space. It was the first lesson I'd learnt in basic physics."

The Secret by Eva Hoffman
Vintage, London, 2003
Page 156

Eva Hoffman

"So we sat by her bedside that evening, watching for signs of improvement and decline. As if anything could be done about either. And yet the signs had to be witnessed, in their every minute, hopeless alteration. They had to be witnessed for human life to continue; for human beings not to slide into an abyss of unmeaning. They had to be witnessed for our sake, as much as for hers. That much I understood. And how strange that it's at that final moment that humans seem to be willing to attend most unreservedly to one another; to perform, finally, that close, unjudgemental reading of lip and eye, of striving and failure, that is the real act of love."

The Secret by Eva Hoffman
Vintage, London, 2003
Page 153

Eva Hoffman

"'Because nature has its laws! Because if we want to remain human, we have to accept our limitations!'"

The Secret by Eva Hoffman
Vintage, London, 2003
Page 107