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

“It would have been better if she had recognized the truth courageously. She would have suffered once, then time would have erased with its sponge. There is nothing like looking things in the face, believe me.”
― 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

“So that's the dead end' (the mirror you break your nose against).”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita