I leapt at the tape like a man taking his last spring to save himself from the chasm that threatens to engulf him.

-Bannister, Sir Roger Gilbert
  Of the end of his record-breaking run. First Four Minutes.

In Mexico the gods ruled, the priests interpreted and interposed, and the people obeyed.In Spain, the priests ruled, the king interpreted and interposed, and the gods obeyed. A nuance in an ideological difference is a wide chasm.

-Condon, Richard
A  Talent for Loving, bk.1, ch.6.