I saw how little it weighed on the scale of things
whether I lived or died,
though my life was precious to me.
And of those two thoughts
I forged a mood by which I stood ready
to grasp each smallest chance to live.
Yet in which I cared not too much
whether I saved myself for not;
by that mood, as I think, I did live.
It has been so good a friend to me
that I have endeavored to wear it ever since,
succeeding not always, but often.
Gene Wolfe; Severian, Chapter 9: The Liege of Leaves
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God is only mocked by believers.
Anne Sexton “Letters to Dr. Y.”
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The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.
Thomas Merton Statement from his final address, delivered two hours before his death (10 December 1968), quoted in The Boundless Circle : Caring for Creatures and Creation (1996) by Michael W. Fox.
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