"Many poets are not poets for the same reason that many religious men are not saints: They never succeed in being themselves...How do you expect to arrive at the end of your own journey if take the road to another man's city? How do you expect to reach your own perfection by leading someone else's life? His sanctity will never be yours: You must have the humility to work out your own salvation in a darkness where you are absolutely alone..." - Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation
"Realizing that things can never again be as they once were, and feeling that something precious has been taken away, we are all too likely to conclude that the golden age lies somewhere behind us. The people who lived in it may not have known that it was a golden age, but we discover it for them and string out long tales, sad and beautiful in sunset red and gold, about the ease and peace that once lay upon the earth. We center our hopes on something that is long gone; knowing that the future cannot be as rich and rewarding as the irrecoverable past, we let it take care of itself. The land of night must be marvelous; it contains the best the race can ever have." - Bruce Catton, Waiting on the Morning Train
