Thanos Karmas

“Why are we worn out? Why do we, who start out so passionate, brave, noble, believing, become totally bankrupt by the age of thirty or thirty-five? Why is it that one is extinguished by consumption, another puts a bullet in his head, a third seeks oblivion in vodka, cards, a fourth, in order to stifle fear and anguish, cynically tramples underfoot the portrait of his pure, beautiful youth? Why is it that, once fallen, we do not try to rise, and, having lost one thing, we do not seek another? Why?”
― Anton Chekhov, The Complete Short Novels

“Evil, then consists essentially in the choice of what is lower in preference to what is higher.”
― St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Against the Heathen

“There are a great many opinions in this world, and a good half of them are professed by people who have never been in trouble."

(The Mill)”
― Anton Chekhov, The Portable Chekhov

“It was a dictum of his that the soul's energy thrives when the body's desires are feeblest.”
― Athanasius of Alexandria, The Life of St. Anthony