There are a few quotes that have been kicking around in my head for several months now, and I thought I would finally take the chance to capture them here in the hopes that others might find them useful as well. They are not specifically related, but I think they make a nice duo looked at together.

The first is about the seemingly Pan-Asian goddess figure named Kuan Yin, and it reads.

It is believed that Kuan Yin frequently appears in the sky or on the waves to save those who call upon her when in danger. Personal stories can be heard in Taiwan, for instance, from those who report that during World War II when the United States bombed the Japanese-occupied Taiwan, she appeared in the sky as a young maiden, catching the bombs and covering them with her white garments so they would not explode.

The second is from sci-fi author Philip K. Dick, appearing in his book “Now Wait For Last Year,” and reads:

To the cab he said suddenly, “If your wife were sick-”

“I have no wife, sir,” the cab said. “Automatic Mechanisms never marry; everyone knows that.”

“All right,” Eric agreed. “If you were me, and your wife were sick, desperately so, with no hope of recovery, would you leave her? Or would you stay with her, even if you had traveled ten years into the future and knew for an absolute certainty that the damage to her brain could never be reversed? And staying with her would mean-”

“I can see what you mean, sir,” the cab broke in. “It would mean no other life for you beyond caring for her.”

“That’s right,” Eric said.

“I’d stay with her,” the cab decided.

“Why?’

“Because,” the cab said, “life is composed of reality configurations so constituted. To abandon her would be to say, I can’t endure reality as such. I have to have uniquely special easier conditions.”

“I think I agree,” Eric said after a time. “I think I will stay with her.”

“God bless you, sir,” the cab said. “I can see that you’re a good man.”

“Thank you,” Eric said.

The cab soared on toward Tijuana Fur & Dye Corporation.

Of course, this is coming from Philip K. Dick who had five different wives, if I’m not mistaken. But it’s still a really amazing passage, I think. Especially since it takes place between a man and a sentient taxi cab.