«As the sleep-waker pronounced these latter words, in a feeble tone, I observed on his countenance a singular expression, which somewhat alarmed me, and induced me to awake him at once. No sooner had I done this than, with a bright smile irradiating all his features, he fell back upon his pillow and expired. I noticed that in less than a minute afterward his corpse had all the stern rigidity of stone. His brow was of the coldness of ice. Thus, ordinarily, should it have appeared, only after long pressure from Azrael’s hand. Had the sleep-waker, indeed, during the latter portion of his discourse, been addressing me from out the regions of the shadows?» (E. A. Poe, Mesmeric revelation).

Of all discourse governed by desire of knowledge, there is at last an end, either by attaining or by giving over. And in the chain of discourse, wheresoever it be interrupted, there is an end for that time.
If the discourse be merely mental, it consisteth of thoughts that the thing will be, and will not be; or that it has been, and has not been, alternately. So that wheresoever you break off the chain of a man’s discourse, you leave him in a presumption of it will be, or, it will not be; or (...)

Don’t stand in range where fools can reach you
Of all the things that I have said,
There’s nothing wiser I have to teach you
Than to run from a guy who has holes in his head.
One often sees them near a crown.
The king finds it amusing when their barbs bring down
Some self-important fop, some fraud, some courtly clown.
A fool went shouting all about the town,
That he sold wisdom. Soon, people were thickly pressed
Around him, each more credulous than the rest.
But after a bit one (...)