V. D.

“If it were true, that old legend about appearing before a supreme judge and naming one’s record, I would offer, with all my pride, not any act I committed, but one thing I have never done on this earth: that I never sought an outside sanction. I would stand and say: I am Gail Wynand, the man who has committed every crime except the foremost one: that of ascribing futility to the wonderful act of existence and seeking justification beyond myself. This is my pride: that now, thinking of the end, I don not cry like all the men of my age: but what was the use and the meaning? I was the use and meaning. I, Gail Wynand. That I lived and that I acted.”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

“Only where there is disillusionment and depression and sorrow does happiness arise; without the despair of loss, there is no hope.”
― Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

“Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent.”
― C.G. Jung

“To caress the serpent that devours us, until it has eaten away our heart.”
― Voltaire, Candide, or, Optimism