The most profound enchantment for the collector is the locking of individual items within a magic circle in which they are fixed as the final thrill, the thrill of acquisition, passes over them ... One has only to watch a collector handle the objects in his glass case. As he holes them in his hands, he seems to be seeing through them into their distant past
~ Walter Benjamin
 Illuminations

The hollow of my hand was still ivory-full of Lolita.
~Nabokov,
 Lolita

No one insures against inherent vice.
~Gaddis
 The Recognitions