“The fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes: a counter pushed across a table, a pen stroke that alters the force of a phrase, a woman’s sigh as she passes and leaves on the air a trail of orange flower or rose water; her hand pulling close the bed curtain, the discreet sigh of flesh against flesh.” — Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
“Formal order…is always and to some considerable degree parasitic on informal process, which the formal scheme does not recognize, without which it could not exist, and which it alone cannot create or maintain.” — James C. Scott, “Seeing Like a State”
“When I began to write my history, I was inclined to count these legends as foolishness; but on getting as far as Arcadia I grew to hold a more thoughtful view of them, which is this: in the days of old, those Greeks who were considered wise spoke their sayings not straight out but in riddles…” — Pausanias