Michelle Kubilis

“Our lives here are inexpressibly trivial and momentous at once”
― Samantha Harvey, Orbital

“One time, a few years back, his door bell rang at two in the morning. He got up to see who or what it was. “What do you want? You know what time it is?” There before him was an addict, probably trying to sell him another trinket out of the trash that he didn’t need. “You know it’s two in the morning?” George asked the addict. “Your lights burning,” the addict said. “The lights on your car, Mr. G. I’m sorry, Mr. G., but your lights’re on in your car.” George thanked him. He rushed out to turn off the lights and promised himself he wouldn’t prejudge these people anymore. “I just thank the Lord,” he says, “that, by his grace, it’s not me.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“There are some things you just do because it’s the right thing to do. And the outcome is out of my hands or in somebody else’s hands. I want to believe there’s value in that. You’re doing everything you can for the patient, but you’re not deluding yourself into thinking that what you do isn’t worth doing because the person is going to die anyway.”
― Tracy Kidder, Rough Sleepers