He said to me: "'This miserable state is borne
by the wretched souls of those who lived
without disgrace yet without praise.
...
They have no hope of death
and their blind life is so abject
that they are envious of every other lot.'
-Dante's Inferno

"In a minute there is time
for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse."

"We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown."

from "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot