Man survives earthquakes, epidemics, the horror of disease, and all the agonies of the soul, but for all time his most tormenting tragedy has been, is and will be—the tragedy of the bedroom.
—Tolstoy
Damn the nature of things!
—Richard Porson (1759–1808)
Silence is the only Voice of our God.
—Melville’s Pierre, or the Ambiguities
humourless fuck