"We got a course in picknicking at the university," said Dr. Bourbon. "It's called Geology, but it's really… — Malcolm Bradbury

"You see, you are an optimist and live on hope. I am a pessimist and live on experience."

[A]nd the traffic noise that boomed in through the window was another reminder of what his spirit knew, that he was but a grain of sand in someone else's desert.

My experience of ships is that on them one makes an interesting discovery about the world. One finds one can do without it completely.