“By practice and conviction formed,
With ancient stubbornness ingrained,
Although her body clung and swarmed,
My own identity remained.”

“Ancient philosophy will always hold its own among those who are worthy to judge it, because it forms… a system that is solid and well articulated like the body, whereas all these scattered members of modern philosophy form no system.”

Julien Offray de La Mettrie (1709–1751) French physician and philosopher

“She clung to that which had robbed her, as people do.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

“She was a stranger in her own life, a tourist in her own body.”

Melissa de la Cruz book The Van Alen Legacy

“There is nothing wrong in the idea of a body, nor even in the idea ‘I am the body.’ But limiting oneself to one body only is a mistake. In reality all existence, every form, is my own, within my consciousness. (…).”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

“I clung to nothing, in a way I was calm. But it was a horrible calm—because of my body; my body, I saw with its eyes, I heard with its ears, but it was no longer me; it sweated and trembled by itself and I didn’t recognize it any more.”

Jean Paul Sartre book The Wall

“Hindu body and soul, Hindu life, in every pore my identity is of a Hindu”

Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) 10th Prime Minister of India

“My own life in India, since I came to it in 1893 to make it my home, has been devoted to one purpose, to give back to India her ancient freedom.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

“Grammar is the mistress of words, the embellisher of the human race; through the practice of the noble reading of ancient authors, she helps us, we know, by her counsels. The barbarian kings do not use her; as is well known, she remains unique to lawful rulers. For the tribes possess arms and the rest; rhetoric is found in sole obedience to the lords of the Romans.”
Grammatica magistra verborum, ornatrix humani generis, quae per exercitationem pulcherrimae lectionis antiquorum nos cognoscitur iuvare consiliis. hac non utuntur barbari reges: apud legales dominos manere cognoscitur singularis. arma enim et reliqua gentes habent: sola reperitur eloquentia, quae Romanorum dominis obsecundat.

Cassiodorus Variae

“The panopticon produces subjects with desires to improve their inner lives. In contrast the superpanopticon constitutes objects, individuals with dispersed identities, who may remain unaware of how those identities are construed by the computer. We are once again back with disappearing bodies.”

David Lyon (1948) British sociologist