quote
I have never encountered men whose language, costume, or customs are foreign without speculating on the nature of the women of their race. There is always a connection, since the two are the growths of a single culture, just as the leaves of a tree, which one sees, and the fruit, which one does not see because it is hidden by the leaves, are the growths of a single organism. But the observer who would venture to predict the appearance and flavor of the fruit from the outline of a few leafy boughs seen (as it were) from a distance, must know a great deal about leaves and fruit if he is not to make himself ridiculous.
— Severian the Lictor,
in The Sword of the Lictor, third tale in The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe (via)
in The Sword of the Lictor, third tale in The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe (via)