Color in Words

I have found that since I've started painting a lot, I am very in tuned to color. One of my favorite things is to experiment with is color. The contrasts between them, blending them together, different shades of the same color etc. I've come across a few written passages in my reading that have struck me because of their wonderfully ability to describe color in words. I thought I'd share them with you.
The first, by Mark Twain, is actually one of my favorite quotes by him, even though it's completely non-philosophical. It's within a paragraph of his autobiography where he is describing the decor of a house he rented in Florence.

"The floor is covered with a felt-like filling of strenuous red, one can almost see Pharaoh's host floundering in it. There are four rugs scattered about like islands, violent rugs who's colors swear at each other and at the Red Sea."

The second is in a book called The Universe Below which is about the history of deep sea exploration. The author is quoting another author by the name of William Beebe.

"On earth at night in moonlight I can always imagine the yellow of sunshine, the scarlet of invisible blossoms. But down here [meaning in the deep], when the searchlight was off, yellow and orange and red were unthinkable. The blue which filled all space admitted no thought of other colors."