Nuestro portero descubrio¤  , o creyo¤   descubrir, que su labor no se pod|¤a limitar a abrir la puerta del edificio, sino que e¤  l, el portero, era el sen‹  alado, el elegido, el indicado†para mostrarles a todas aquellas personas una puerta ma¤  s amplia y hasta entonces invisible o inaccesible; puerta que era la de sus propias vidas. Our doorman discovered (or thought he had discovered) that his tasks could not be limited to just opening the door of the buildingöbut that he, the doorman, was the one chosen, elected, singled out†to show everyone who lived there a wider door, until then either invisible or inaccessible: the door to their own lives.

-Arenas, Reinaldo
  El portero (The Doorman,1961), pt.1, ch.1.

Tired of knocking at Preferment's door.

-Arnold, Matthew
  Poems:  A New Edition,'The Scholar-Gipsy', l.35.

O tell me the truth about love. When it comes, will it come without warning Just as I'm picking my nose? Will it knock on my door in the morning, Or tread in the bus on my toes?

-Auden,W(ystan) H(ugh)
  'Twelve Poems', section12.

Then up and started our gudewife, Gied three skips on the floor: 'Gudeman, ye've spoken the foremost word, Get up and bar the door.'

-Ballads
'Get Up and Bar the Door'.

Talis, inquiens, mihi videtur, rex, vita hominum praesens in terris, ad comparationem eius, quod nobis incertum est, temporis, quale cum te residente, ad caenam cum ducibus ac ministris tuis tempore brumale†adveniens unus passerum domum citissime, pervolaverit; qui cum per unum ostium ingrediens, mox per aliud exierit. Ipso quidem tempore, quo intus est, hiemis tempestate non tangitur, sed tamen parvissimo spatio serenitatis ad momentum excurso, mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens, tuis oculis elabitur. Ita haec vita hominum ad modicum apparet; quid autem sequatur, quidve praecesserit, prorsus ignoramus. 'Such,' he said,'O King, seems to me the present life of menon earth, incomparisonwiththattimewhichtousis uncertain, as if when on a winter's night you sit feasting with your ealdormen and thegnsöa single sparrow should flyswiftly intothehall, and coming inat one door, instantly flyoutthrough another.Inthattime inwhichit is indoorsit isindeed nottouched by thefuryofthewinter, and yet, this smallest space of calmness being passed almost in a flash, from winter going into winter again, it is lost to your eyes. Somewhat like this appears the life of man; but of what follows or what went before, we are utterly ignorant.'

-Bede known as  'theVenerable'
Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis  Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People, translated byB Colgrave,1969), bk.2, ch.13.

   Set a watch,O L, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDPsalms141:3.

Behold,I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Revelation 3:8.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Revelation 3:20.

Then cherish pity, lest you drive an angel from yourdoor.

-Blake,William
  Songs of Innocence,'Holy Thursday'.

Their soul abhorred all manner of meat: and they were even hard at death's door.

-Book of Common Prayer
Psalm107:18.

In Criticks hands, beware thou dost not come; And take thy way where yet thou art not known, If for thy Father askt, say, thou hadst none: And for thy Mother, she alas is poor, Which caus'd her thus to send thee out of door.

-Bradstreet, Anne ne¤  e Dudley
  The Tenth MuseLately SprungUp In  America,'The Author to Her Book'.

And I replied unto all these things which encompass the door of my flesh,'Ye have told me of my god, that ye are not he: tell me something of him'. And theycried all with a great voice,'He made us'.Myquestioning themwasmy mind's desire, and their Beauty was their answer.

-Bridges, Robert Seymour
  The Spirit of Man: The Confessions of St  Augustine.

What heaven-entreated heart is this, Stands trembling at the gate of bliss, Holds fast the door, yet dares not venture Fairly to open it, and enter?

-Crashaw, Richard
  'To the Noblest and Best of Ladies, the Countess of Denbigh'.

Vice came in always at the door of necessity, not at the door of inclination.

-Defoe, Daniel
  Moll Flanders.

'Is there anybody there?'said theTraveller, Knocking on the moonlit door; And his horse in the silence champed the grasses Of the forest's ferny floor.

-de la Mare,Walter
  'The Listeners'.

'Yes,I have a pairof eyes,'replied Sam,'and that's just it.If they wos a pair o'patent double million magnifyin'gas microscopes of hextra power, p'raps I might be able to see through a flight o'stairs and a deal door; but bein' only eyes, you see, my wision's limited.'

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^7  Pickwick Papers, ch.34.

I throw myself down in my Chamber, and I call in, and invite God, and his Angels thither, and when they are there, I neglect God and his Angels, for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door.

-Donne,John
  Sermon preached at the funeral of Sir  William Cockayne, 12 Dec.

Come when you're called; And do as you're bid; Shut the door after you; And you'll never be chid.

-Edgeworth, Maria
  The Contrast, ch.1.

Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened Into the rose-garden. My words echo Thus, in your mind.

-Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)
  Four Quartets,'Burnt Norton', pt.1.

Chassez les pre¤  juge¤  s par la porte, ils rentreront par la fene"  tre. Drive out prejudices through the door, and they will return through the window.

-Frederick II, the Great
  Letter to Voltaire,19 Mar.