It quickly swelled into the shape of a gigantic question mark, the middle of which was a vivid crimson, and as this thunderhead-like column billowed upward through the sky, she could see a red ball of fire at its core.

-Agawa, Hiroyuki
  Of the atomic explosion, Hiroshima. Haru no shiro (Citadel in Spring, translated by Lawrence Rogers), ch.9.

A small, compact core, consisting of reliable, experienced and hardened workers, with responsible agents†connected byall therules of strict secrecy with the organisations of revolutionists, can, with the wide support of the masses and without an elaborate set of rules, perform all the functions of a trade union.

-Lenin,Vladimir Ilyich originally Vladimir IlyichUlyanov
  What Is to be Done?

For books are more than books, they are the life The very heart and core of ages past, The reason why men lived and worked and died, The essence and quintessence of their lives.

-Lowell, Amy
  'The Boston  Atheneum'.