Annie Dillard

The surest sign of age is loneliness. ”

A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. ”

Just think: in all the clean, beautiful reaches of the solar system, our planet alone is a blot; our planet alone has death. ”

Appealing workplaces are to be avoided. One wants a room with no view, so imagination can meet memory in the dark. ”

Your work is to keep cranking the flywheel that turns the gears that spin the belt in the engine of belief that keeps you and your desk in midair. ”

It is ironic that the one thing that all religions recognize as separating us from our creator, our very self-consciousness, is also the one thing that divides us from our fellow creatures. It was a bitter birthday present from evolution. ”