“But these shocks and ruins are less destructive to us, than the stealthy power of other laws which act upon us daily. An expense of ends to means is fact; — organization tyrannizing over character. The menegerie, of forms and powers of the spine, is a book of fate: the bill of the bird, the skull of the snake, determines tyrannically its limits. So is the scale of races, of temperaments; so is sex; so is climate; so is the reaction of talents imprisoning the vital power in certain directions. Every spirit makes its house; but afterwards the house confines the spirit.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Fate”, 1860
“There is no way this winter is ever going to end, as long as that groundhog keeps seeing his shadow. I don’t see any way out of it. He’s got to be stopped. And I have to stop him.”
– Phil Connors (played by Bill Murray), “Groundhog Day”, 1993