“The future is a fog that is still hanging out over the sea, a boat that floats home or does not.”

“English policy is to float lazily downstream, occasionally putting out a diplomatic boat-hook to avoid collisions.”

“Life is like stepping onto a boat which is about to sail out to sea and sink.”

“The Christian fog of self deception still does its damage: we either deceive ourselves by pretending to believe or overreact into a contempt of all religion. So, away with the fog!”

“Shells sink, dreams float. Life's good on our boat.”

“The science hangs like a gathering fog in a valley, a fog which begins nowhere and goes nowhere, an incidental, unmeaning inconvenience to passers-by.”

“And when the fog's over and the stars and the moon come out at night it'll be a beautiful sight.”

“In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics.”

“This was an evil beyond thinking. The killing of a man was not so evil as the killing of a boat. For a boat does not have sons, and a boat cannot protect itself, and a wounded boat does not heal.”

“The boat dipped and swayed and sometimes took on water, but it did not sink; the two brothers had waterproofed it well. I do not know where it finally fetched up, if it ever did; perhaps it reached the sea and sails there forever like a magic boat in a fairytale. All I know is that it was still afloat and still running on the breast of the flood when it passed the incorporated town limits of Derry, Maine, and there it passes out of this tale forever.”