Meg

“What then in eternity will conscience demand of you by the consciousness that you are an individual? It will teach you that if you judge (for in very many cases it will restrain you from judging), you must bear the responsibility for your judgment. It will teach you that you should examine what you understand and what you do not understand... For many fools do not make a wise man, and the crowd is doubtful recommendation for a cause. ...But the man who, conscious of himself as an individual, judges with eternal responsibility, he is slow to pass judgment upon the unusual. For it is possible that it is falsehood and deceit and illusion and vanity. But it is also possible that it is true.”
― Soren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing: Spiritual Preparation for the Office of Confession

“But--pardon me if I seem inquisitive--are you not all rather--ahem!--rather unusual?' asked the Woggle-Bug, looking from one to another with unconcealed interest.
'Not more so than yourself,' answered the Scarecrow. 'Everything in life is unusual until you get accustomed to it.”
― L. Frank Baum, The Marvellous Land of Oz

“One must, however, take care not to understand this conversation with God--the conversation of which I have to speak in this book and in almost all the works which followed--as something happening solely alongside or above the everyday. God's speech to men penetrates what happens in the life of each one of us, and all that happens in the world around us, biographical and historical, and makes it for you and me into instruction, message, demand. Happening upon happening, situation upon situation, are enabled and empowered by the personal speech of God to demand of the human person that he take his stand and make his decision. Often enough we think there is nothing to hear, but long before we have ourselves put wax in our ears.
(Postscript, October 1957)”
― Martin Buber, I and Thou

“You may remember the old question, the one that's supposed to define your outlook on life when you answer it. For Byron Hadley the answer would always be half empty, the glass is half empty. Forever and ever, amen. If you gave him a cool drink of apple cider, he'd think about vinegar. If you told him his wife
had always been faithful to him, he'd tell you it was because she was so damn ugly.”
― Stephen King, Different Seasons