After-Orts #42
There are three rules for writing a novel.
Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
— attributed to W. Somerset Maugham,
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/05/06/three-rules/
What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves?
— Thomas Merton
The bird, a nest; the spider, a web; man, friendship.
—William Blake, Proverbs of Hell (c. 1790)
http://4umi.com/blake/marriage/proverbs2
...under the magnetism of friendship, the modest man becomes bold, the shy confident, the lazy active, or the impetuous prudent and peaceful.
— William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, chapter 23 (1848)
A friend who is very near and dear may in time become as useless as a relative.
— George Ade, People You Know (1903)