Sand

Famous quotes containing the word sand:

    This sand seemed to us the connecting link between land and water. It was a kind of water on which you could walk, and you could see the ripple-marks on its surface, produced by the winds, precisely like those at the bottom of a brook or lake. We had read that Mussulmans are permitted by the Koran to perform their ablutions in sand when they cannot get water, a necessary indulgence in Arabia, and we now understand the propriety of this provision.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Unhappy is the man for evermair
    That tills the sand and sawis in the air;
    But twice unhappier is he, I lairn,
    That feidis in his hairt a mad desire
    And follows on a woman thro the fire,
    Led by a blind and teachit by a bairn.
    Mark Alexander Boyd (1563–1601)

    Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. If a man habituated to a narrow circle of cares and pleasures, out of which he seldom travels, step beyond it, though for never so brief a space, his departure from the monotonous scene on which he has been an actor of importance would seem to be the signal for instant confusion.... The mine which Time has slowly dug beneath familiar objects is sprung in an instant; and what was rock before, becomes but sand and dust.
    Charles Dickens (1812–1870)