1
" He discovered wonderful stories, also, about jewels. In Alphonso's Clericalis Disciplina a serpent was mentioned with eyes of real jacinth, and in the romantic history of Alexander, the Conqueror of Emathia was said to have found in the vale of Jordan snakes 'with collars of real emeralds growing on their backs.' There was a gem in the brain of the dragon, Philostratus told us, and 'by the exhibition of golden letters and a scarlet robe' the monster could be thrown into a magical sleep and slain. According to the great alchemist, Pierre de Boniface, the diamond rendered a man invisible, and the agate of India made him eloquent. The cornelian appeased anger, and the hyacinth provoked sleep, and the amethyst drove away the fumes of wine. The garnet cast out demons, and the hydropicus deprived the moon of her color. The selenite waxed and waned with the moon, and the meloceus, that discovers thieves, could be affected only by the blood of kids. Leonardus Camillus had seen a white stone taken from the brain of a newly killed toad, that was a certain antidote against poison. The bezoar, that was found in the heart of the Arabian deer, was a charm that could cure the plague. In the nests of Arabian birds was the aspirates, that, according to Democritus, kept the wearer from any danger by fire. "
― Oscar Wilde , The Picture of Dorian Gray
3
" As long as I can hear the sweet melody of your words,
I need not;
The angel’s secret, to be whispered in my ears
As long as I can lace your silky fingers round my own,
I need not;
Pretty diamonds, nor big cash nor gold
As long as I can watch the handsome sunshine of your face,
I need not;
Open skies, nor snowfall, nor the rain
As long as I can gaze into the emeralds of your eyes,
I need not;
New colors, new wings or paradise
As long as I can feel the tender tickle of your breath,
I need not;
The drifting wind, nor its call, nor caress
As long as I can feel your soft lips upon mine,
I need not;
Melted sugar, nor the most expensive of wines
As long as I can feel your warm body close to me
I need not;
A blanket, nor a bonfire's luxury
As long as I can see you every morning I wake,
I need not;
A mirror, nor a cloud, nor shade
As long as I can keep you in every petal of memories
I need not:
Dreams, nor desires, nor fantasies
And as long as I can hold you in every moment that I breathe,
I need not;
Oxygen, nor blood, nor heartbeats. "
― Sanober Khan
4
" Been thinking of my grandfather, whose wayward brilliance skipped my father’s generation. Once, he showed me an aquatint of a certain Siamese temple. Don’t recall its name, but ever since a disciple of the Buddha preached on the spot centuries ago, every bandit king, tyrant, and monarch of that kingdom has enhanced it with marble towers, scented arboretums, gold-leafed domes, lavished murals on its vaulted ceilings, set emeralds into the eyes of its statuettes. When the temple finally equals its counterpart in the Pure Land, so the story goes, that day humanity shall have fulfilled its purpose, and Time itself shall come to an end.
To men like Ayrs, it occurs to me, this temple is civilization. The masses, slaves, peasants, and foot soldiers exist in the cracks of its flagstones, ignorant even of their ignorance. Not so the great statesmen, scientists, artists, and most of all, the composers of the age, any age, who are civilization’s architects, masons, and priests. Ayrs sees our role is to make civilization ever more resplendent. My employer’s profoundest, or only, wish is to create a minaret that inheritors of Progress a thousand years from now will point to and say, “Look, there is Vyvyan Ayrs!”
How vulgar, this hankering after immortality, how vain, how false. Composers are merely scribblers of cave paintings. One writes music because winter is eternal and because, if one didn’t, the wolves and blizzards would be at one’s throat all the sooner. "
― David Mitchell , Cloud Atlas