Vilena

“Do not swallow the easy moralism of the day, which urges honesty at the expense of desirability.”
― Robert Greene, The Laws of Human Nature

“...the real way of vanquishing scruples is to leave those who have them nothing to lose.”
― Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, Les liaisons dangereuses

“if religion consists merely in feeling the presence of God, it is devoid of any moral quality whatever. Pure feeling, if there be such a thing, is non-moral. What makes affection for a human friend, for example, such an ennobling thing is the knowledge which we possess of the character of our friend. Human affection, apparently so simple, is really just bristling with dogma. It depends upon a host of observations treasured up in the mind with regard to the character of our friend. But if human affection is thus really dependent upon knowledge, why should it be otherwise with that supreme personal relationship which is at the basis of religion? Why should we be indignant against slanders directed against a human friend, while at the same time we are patient about the basest slanders directed against our God? Certainly it does make the greatest possible difference what we think about God.”
― J. Gresham Machen, Christianity, Culture, and Liberalism

“What you love is your own love. It's not love, it's selfishness. It's not me you think of, but what you feel about me.”
― John Fowles, The Collector