Aleksander

“Don't misunderstand me," I said. "Intelligence is one of the greatest human gifts. But all too often a search for knowledge drives out the search for love. This is something else I've discovered for myself very recently. I present it to you as a hypothesis: Intelligence without the ability to give and receive affection leads to mental and moral breakdown, to neurosis, and possibly even psychosis. And I say that the mind absorbed in and involved in itself as a self-centered end, to the exclusion of human relationships, can only lead to violence and pain. "When I was retarded I had lots of friends. Now I have no one. Oh, I know lots of people. Lots and lots of people. But I don't have any real friends. Not like I used to have in the bakery. Not a friend in the world who means anything to me, and no one I mean anything to.”
― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

“The gifts we give say as much about us as the gifts we get and keep,”
― Dot Hutchison, The Butterfly Garden

“Really? We always have a choice, do we? What about the choices that other people make that end up completely changing your life, not theirs? Where is our choice there, then?”
― Chris Carter, One by One