Joseph Riebe

“Souls, like rays of light, exist in perfect, parallel equality, always. But for when infinitely short a time they pass through the rough and delaying mechanism of life, they separate and disentangle, encountering different obstacles, traveling at different rates, like light refracted by the friction of things in its path. Emerging on the other side, they run together once more, in perfection. For the short and difficult span when confounded by matter and time they are made unequal, they try to bind together as they always were and eventually will be. The impulse to do so is called love. The extend to which they exceed is called justice. And the energy lost in the effort is called sacriface. On the infinite scale of things, this life is to a spark what a spark is to all the time man can imagine, but still, like a sudden rapids or bend in the river, it is that to which the eye of God may be drawn from time to time out of interest in happenstance.”
― Mark Helprin, In Sunlight and in Shadow

“Defiance, Catherine, is a gift of God, who is superior to nature. When nature comes to get you, honor God by treating it, as he would, with neither fear nor respect.”
― Mark Helprin, In Sunlight and in Shadow

“...what argument is left with someone you love if she is willing to break your heart?”
― Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case

“How far do you have to go before you forgive yourself for how you were born?”
― Mark Helprin, In Sunlight and in Shadow