P. Es

“every human creature’s formation in the discernment and delight in beauty is different, and because each of us is badly damaged with respect to our capacity to make reliable judgments about the presence and nature of beauty, we should not be very confident about the judgments we make, and should acknowledge that an artifact that seems to some human creatures crudely annoying, even repellent, may seem to others delightful in respect of its beauty. And if we put these two suggestions together we arrive at the (correct) conclusion that there is no hierarchy of beauty in artifacts obvious to all, or even most, human creatures.”
― Paul J. Griffiths (Author)

“We all need practice sitting with discomfort”
― Abigail Shrier, Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up

“Most of you,' he went on, 'already know how I have
been able to limit the area of investigation in a first
approximation. But one or two of you are not yet in
formed. For you, and to refresh everyone's memory, I'll
go over my calculations again.'
At that point he gave me a roguish and forceful look
demanding my complicity in this adroit falsehood. For
naturally everyone was still in the dark. But by this
simple ruse, each person had the impression of belonging to a minority, of being among 'one or two not yet in formed', felt himself surrounded by a convinced majority, and was eager to be quickly convinced himself.”
― René Daumal, Mount Analogue

“Chance’ simply means historical contingency - this happens rather than that. It is not automatically to be given the tendentious adjective “blind”, as if it were an unambiguous sign of meaninglessness. Rather, it may be seen as signifying the shuffling exploration and realization of fertile possibilities, by which creation makes itself. This due independence of process is a good gift, but it has a necessary cost attached to it. Raggednesses and blind alleys, as well as fruitful outcomes, are inescapable accompaniments of this evolving self-realization. Biology even helps theology a little with the deep question of theodicy, the problem of the evil and suffering of the world. Exactly the same biochemical processes that enable some cells to mutate and produce new forms of life - in other words, the very engine that has driven the stupendous four billion year history of life on Earth - these same processes will inevitably allow other cells to mutate and become malignant. In a non-magic world, it could not be different, and the world is not magic because its Creator is not a capricious Magician. I do not pretend for a moment that this insight removes all the perplexities posed by the sufferings of creation. Yet it affords some mild help, in that it suggests that the existence of cancer is not gratuitous, as if it were due to the Creator’s callousness or incompetence. We all tend to think that if we had been in charge of creation we would have made a better job of it. We would have kept the nice things (flowers and sunsets) and got rid of the nasty (disease and disaster). The more science helps us to understand the process of the universe, the more, it seems to me, to cohere into a single ‘package deal’. The light and the dark are two sides of the same coin. John Polkinghorne, “Understanding the Universe”, Cosmic Questions, James. B Miller, ed.”
― John Polkinghorne F.R.S. K.B.E.