The Mind

Annie Dillard, Teaching A Stone To Talk, from the essay Total Eclipse. Harper and Row Publishers 1982

The mind wants to live forever, or to learn a very good reason why not. The mind wants the world to return its love, or its awareness; the mind wants to know all the world, and all eternity, and God. The mind's sidekick, however, will settle for two eggs over easy. pg 99

And Around the Block

May Sarton, Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing  W.W. Norton & Co. 1975

[...] for it hurts to be alive, and that's a fact, but who can regret being alive and being for others, life-enhancing? We shall be dead a long time. pg. 55