Ava

“Confucius says: 'Many seek happiness higher than man; others beneath him. But happiness is the
same height as man.' That is true. So there must be a happiness to suit every man's stature.”
― Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

“Our souls are old,
often used before.
The knife outlasts
the hand that holds it.”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, Always Coming Home

“We're each of us alone, to be sure. What can you do but hold your hand out in the dark?”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wind's Twelve Quarters, Volume 1

“I have laboured carefully, not to mock, lament, or execrate human actions, but to understand them; and, to this end, I have looked upon passions, such as love, hatred, anger, envy, ambition, pity, and the other perturbations of the mind, not in the light of vices of human nature, but as properties, just as pertinent to it, as are heat, cold, storm, thunder, and the like to the nature of the atmosphere, which phenomena, though inconvenient, are yet necessary, and have fixed causes, by means of which we endeavour to understand their nature, and the mind has just as much pleasure in viewing them aright, as in knowing such things as flatter the senses.”
― Baruch Spinoza, Spinoza: Political Treatise