Austere Quotes

“What an austere landscape! Borluut was alone, with nothing but the sky and water. No footsteps, apart from his own, marked the immense expanse, the white desert which this ancient outer harbour of Bruges now was.”
― Georges Rodenbach, The Bells of Bruges

“What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?”
― Robert Hayden, Collected Poems