Carissa Pullano

“The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.”
― Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

“and Terror and Rout and relentless Strife stormed too, sister of manslaughtering Ares, Ares’ comrade-in-arms— Strife, only a slight thing when she first rears her head but her head soon hits the sky as she strides across the earth. Now Strife hurled down the leveler Hate amidst both sides, wading into the onslaught, flooding men with pain.”
― Homer, The Iliad

“I told myself no matter what she did, I would not let the bitch take me down.”
― Dave Pelzer, A Child Called "It"

“Why is it so dark, Moon Child?’ he asked. ‘The beginning is always dark, my Bastian.”
― Michael Ende, The Neverending Story