Glimmer

“Intense mutual erotic love that involves with the flesh all the refined sexual beings of the spirit, which reveals and perhaps even ex nihilo creates spirit as sex, is comparatively rare in this inconvenient world. This love presents itself as such a dizzily lofty value that even to speak of 'enjoying' it seems a sacrilege. It is something to be undergone upon one's knees. And where it exists it cannot but shed a blazing light of justification upon its own scene, a light which can leave the rest of the world dark indeed.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine

“You can Cheat a Dragon's Curse.
You do not have to accept the hand that Fate has dealt you.”
― Cressida Cowell, How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse

“Loving confers no rights”
― Iris Murdoch, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine

“- Religious imagery is partly aesthetic,' said Monty. 'It's worked on. But it's complice in the same sort of way.'
- You mean?
- It's all to do with the hygiene of the ego. A successful religion is a recipe for an innocent-feeling fantasy life and happy sex.
- Even if one's a hermit or an ascetic on a pillar?
- Especially if one's a hermit or an ascetic on a pillar.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Sacred and Profane Love Machine