Yk

“Out of the bottomless profundities the gigantic tail seems spasmodically snatching at the highest heaven. So in dreams, have I seen majestic Satan thrusting forth his tormented colossal claw from the flame Baltic of Hell. But in gazing at such scenes, it is all in all what mood you are in; if in the Dantean, the devils will occur to you; if in that of Isaiah, the archangels.”
― Herman Melville, Moby-Dick or, The Whale

“People as diverse as James Baldwin and Michelle Obama, Miles Davis and Toni Morrison, Spike Lee and Denzel Washington, and anonymous teachers, store clerks, steelworkers, and physicians, were all products of the Great Migration. They were all children whose life chances were altered because a parent or grandparent had made the hard decision to leave.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

“But you said there was no defense."
"There ain't."
"Then what do I do?"
"Know it, and go on out the yard. Go on.”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

“How shall I help myself? By withdrawing into the garret, and associating with spiders and mice, determining to meet myself face to face sooner or later. Completely silent and attentive I will be this hour, and the next, and forever.”
― Henry David Thoreau, The Journal, 1837-1861