These great turning-days of life cast no shadow before, slip by unconsciously. Only a trifle, a little turn of the rudder, and the ship goes to heaven or hell.
Source: Life in the Iron-Mills, in Atlantic Monthly, 1861.
-- Rebecca Harding Davis, (Jun 24 1831-1910), US author, journalist, critic; She wrote Waiting for the Verdict, 1867 and Bits of Gossip, 1904.