It is imperative that we become governors in a sustainable world and benefit from holistic historical inquiry. If humans truly had a sensibility of what constitutes history in 1750 they would have studied the history of disease and its relation to sanitation rather than slaughter nearly the entire world of whales for the production of perfume over the course of 200 years because humans smelled. If humans truly had a sensibility of what constitutes history, they may not have slaughtered the buffalo in favour of wheat farms, they may not have substituted white bread for black bread, and they may not have slaughtered some millions of Indigenous people in the Americas. If humans understood which humans were important in a sane way they would not have transported and killed millions of Africans as slaves to produce sugar. If they understood the connection between themselves and the plant world they would not have produced sugar at all, implicated as it is in numerous diseases, not the least of which is violence among adults and among children, and hyperactivity. If humans had an accurate sensibility of our connection to the living world they may have studied the relation between fish consumption and health, and overfishing might not have occurred. But the humans in charge do not have an accurate perception of their place in history.

"Salmon is the Hub of Salish Memory," in Memory Serves: Oratories by Lee Maracle

Indigenous women have been fighting the murder of their sisters ever since colonial murder began. We have become agents, transformers and arbiters of our own existence. we may not have made a lot of progress in eliminating the murder of our sisters, but we no longer accept the low standards set for us by society. In this way, as the audience, we have become the transformers. That to me is the role of Raven: transformation and agency. And that, as Salish mythmakers hold, is the point of story.

"Understanding Raven," in Memory Serves: Oratories by Lee Maracle

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence, and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

Opening paragraph Chapter 1, Jane Austen's Emma

"My first enjoyment," replied John Knightley as they passed through the sweep-gate, "will be to find myself safe at Hartfield again."

Closing paragraph Chapter 13, Jane Austen's Emma

Mr. Woodhouse was rather agitated by such harsh reflections on his friend Perry, to whom he had, in fact, though unconsciously, been attributing many of his own feelings and expressions; but the soothing attentions of his daughters gradually removed the present evil, and the immediate alertness of one brother and better recollections of the other prevented any renewal of it.

Closing paragraph Chapter 11, Jane Austen's Emma