The Errant Pilgrim's Progress

“Christ expressed all His teachings in His last commandment: 'Love each other, as I loved you. Everyone will see that you are my disciples, if you love each other.' He did not say, 'If you believe,' but 'If you love.' Faith can change with tie, because our knowledge is constantly changing. Love, on the contrary, never changes; love is eternal.

My religion is to love all living beings.”
― Leo Tolstoy, A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul

“The first two books I have mentioned are great indeed. But the greatest art seems secreted, not constructed.”
― Susan Sontag, Against Interpretation and Other Essays

“He ran across the whole cellar waving his arms in the air then fell sobbing on one of the mats. Tom watched him with mournful eyes, without the slightest desire to console him. Because it wasn't worth the trouble: the kid made more noise than we did, but he was less touched: he was like a sick man who defends himself against illness by fever. It's much more serious when there isn't any fever.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, The Wall and Other Stories

“There is a Finnish word, 'sisu,' which expresses this ultimate hidden resource in man when courage goes and consciousness is blackened, which insists on continuing to live no matter what life is worth. This may mean only that the skeleton wishes to keep its accustomed garment of flesh, that the eyeball fears to feel naked without the many-coloured protection of sight; but it might mean that the whole of us knows some argument in favour of life which the mind has not yet apprehended.”
― Rebecca West, Black Lamb and Grey Falcon